


The Warrior of Honor

by Taylor Dancinghands (tdancinghands)



Series: Clan of the Cave Geeks [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Prehistoric, Drama, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-08
Packaged: 2017-11-04 22:48:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 117,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tdancinghands/pseuds/Taylor%20Dancinghands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few years have passed since the events in 'The Stargazer and the Toolmaker', and all is well in Lakeside, as well as in Rodne and R'dek's (and Spitt's) cave, but winds of change are coming.  They come first with the arrival of strangers to Lakeside, who carry the most terrible news.  The Raiders, scourge of R'dek's childhood, are coming, and nothing will stop them.</p><p>To survive the raiders, changes must be made to Lakeside, and changes come to its residents, and to Rodne and R'dek as well, but the most difficult change of all must come to the Raider's leader, Shef'hred.  Captured by the farmers and fisherfolk of Lakeside, he must learn what it means to give up the life he knew, and still retain his honor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Sloppy Paleolithic history, anachronistic technological leaps and funnied up names.
> 
> Also Minor (canon) background character death, minor OC death, depictions of stone age warfare and intimations of violent acts off stage.
> 
> Many thanks to my most worthy betareader smingus for her encouragement and feedback

Rodne had lived a life full of bad moments, some downright horrible, but he would forever categorize as perhaps the very worst, the moment he watched his lover fall out of that tree. R'dek had insisted that the resins he needed could only be acquired by climbing high into the branches of a very tall sweetwood tree, and when Rodne -standing uneasily at the base, heard the slender branch beneath R'dek's feet give way, he'd thought his heart would stop.

Fortunately, R'dek was quick and agile, and clung with both arms and all his strength to the trunk of the tree so that he slid rapidly down it's length, letting the odd side branch slow his descent, rather than plummeting to his death. It was still painful to watch and Rodne winced numerous times as R'dek approached the ground. When he landed, shaking and rubbing his eyes, Rodne could see the long, jagged gash on his thigh where the treacherous branch that had failed him in the first place, had wounded him as he fell.

"R'dek!" Rodne cried, dropping to his knees besides his lover, touching him carefully, but wanting desperately to assure himself that he was still alive and largely intact. Pushing his hair out of his face -and random bits of bark and other detritus out of his hair- with shaking hands, R'dek looked up at last to meet Rodne's troubled gaze. "That," he said unsteadily, "was not at all what I intended."

Rodne stifled the urge to take his lover by the shoulders and shake him, seeing as he had likely been shaken enough, but he could not silence the panicked words that came in response. "No," he snapped. "Evidently what you intended was to get yourself killed, but don't give up yet, you may still have succeeded."

Urgently fumbling through the contents of his shoulder pouch, Rodne extracted the bit of soft hide he'd used to wrap the lunch he'd eaten earlier, and used it now to brush the splinters and bits of bark away from the gash in R'dek's thigh, which was already bleeding copiously. It was long and deep, running from just above his knee nearly to his groin, and of the sort that was as likely to turn poisonous as to heal, and Rodne felt the dread that had begun as he watched R'dek fall take hold in his heart. His lover's life was still very much in danger.

"Rodne..." R'dek's voice was gentle, and Rodne saw that R'dek understood the reason for his harsh words. "It will heal. I will be fine, I promise." He laid his hand on Rodne's, firm and warm, and Rodne knew that the promise was not made lightly.

"Well Caresn does say that having a positive attitude always helps in the healing process," Rodne muttered crossly, reaching an arm around R'dek's back. There was a good, clean running stream they'd pass on the way back to the cave, and he'd wash R'dek's wound there, as Caresn had told him to do to prevent a serious wound going bad. Even the tiniest of foreign objects in a wound could cause it to turn poisonous, he'd told Rodne, and Rodne fretted about this in particular, for there were surely countless little bits of wood in R'dek's wound.

"Caresn is a wise man," R'dek said, struggling to stand with Rodne's help and the support of the tree he'd just fallen from. "I shall take his advice to heart."

After that they'd neither of them had the strength or attention for conversation. R'dek had done his best to help Rodne clean his wound in the icy stream, but his face had been white with pain by the time Rodney had done all that he could there. He wasn't at all sure that he'd done enough, for R'dek's injury had been long and complicated, with too many places that some bit of splinter might still be hiding. He did not speak of this with R'dek, however, instead assuring him that he'd gotten everything. R'dek had gotten a good look at the wound himself, however, and Rodne wasn't at all sure that he'd been convinced.

Back in the cave, Rodney had dressed the injury with pads of soft, dry moss, securing them with strips of hide, then gone to make some broth as R'dek rested with his flask of lightning water, which he said lessened the pain slightly -or at least rendered him so that he didn't care about it quite so much.

After he'd finished making the broth he swapped it out for the flask of lightning water, which R'dek had been reluctant to relinquish until Rodne suggested that he might want it more later on. That was something that Rodne didn't much care to contemplate, but was likely true nonetheless. Even if it healed, R'dek's wound was going to get worse before it got better.

Once he had drunk the broth and some herbal tea which Caresn had described as being good for 'strengthening the blood' -whatever that meant- the trauma of the day's events and the lightning water finally had their way with R'dek and he drifted off to sleep. There would be no such solace for Rodne, however, even later, when he lay down besides his lover and took him in his arms. How could he sleep when the image of R'dek's first precipitous plunge from high in the tree remained, as though painted on the inside of his eyelids? And when it was not that, there was the image of the long, jagged tear in his lover's flesh, in the strong smooth thigh that Rodne had caressed and kissed countless times.

There would be a scar there now, forever after -that was assuming this wound did not kill him. Rodne would have liked to put that possibility out of his mind, but his mind was not so compliant. In his unhappy experience, wounds of this sort went bad more often than not, and the thought that over the next handful of days he would watch his lover succumb to fever and the agonies of a poisoned wound tormented Rodne horribly. He could not sleep, felt no appetite, and it seemed as though a dark pall had fallen over his whole world.

By morning, however, Rodne had determined one thing. He would not sit and do nothing while R'dek sickened and died. Though it was a two days walk distant, there was aid to be had, in Lakeside. He knew Caresn would come if summoned, but that would mean leaving R'dek alone for four days, and that he could not do. R'dek would have to come to Caresn then, though it was possible that the journey itself might kill him. Staying here though, Rodne had become increasingly convinced, would end up being just as deadly.

R'dek woke feverish the next morning, however, and begged not to be forced to make the journey. It would not be necessary, he insisted. He would heal on his own, right here. Rodne acquiesced that first day, letting himself be swayed by R'dek's determination, but by the next day R'dek's condition had clearly worsened and his own determination to take R'dek to Caresn rose up again.

"Please, Rodne..." R'dek had plead weakly as Rodne replaced the moss covering R'dek's injury, which was now seeping stuff that seemed decidedly unhealthy. "I cannot... It is too far..."

"I'll help you," Rodne said, wrapping R'dek in a warm hide tunic although the day was warm and pleasant, for his lover's fever came and went with bouts of terrible chills. "I'll carry you if I have to, but we need to get you to Caresn.

"I won't!" R'dek tried for obstinate, but Rodne remained undaunted.

"And you're going to stop me how?" Rodne snapped back, hating the look of helpless distress on R'dek's face that followed. "R'dek, listen to me, please," Rodne relented a bit, taking one of R'dek's fever warm hands in his. "It's bad; you know it's bad, and if we wait for it to get any worse it'll be too late, and I can't..." and Rodne had to stop and swallow because it was hard to talk about how scared he was, but R'dek needed to know.

"If I... If I lost you," he finally managed, "I don't know what I'd do... I don't know if I'd even want..." He let himself trail off there, because judging by the look on R'dek's face, he'd made his point.

"Rodne..." R'dek said softly, then he nodded solemnly. "Alright," he said. "Alright, I will go, but I... you may yet have to carry me. I do not think I will be able to walk very far."

"We'll take it easy," Rodne said earnestly, his fingers brushing strands of hair away from R'dek's sweat dampened brow. "We'll rest as often as you need to, but we'll get you there, and then Caresn will be able to help you."

R'dek nodded solemnly, leaning against Rodne as though he were exhausted already. "I know you are probably right," he said. "I am sorry I have caused this trouble."

"What, by going about your business and ignoring my paranoid whining?" Rodne replied, gathering some food and other supplies for the journey and stuffing them into his bag. "If you listened to me all the time you'd never come out of the cave, and then I'd probably fret at you about the damp or the bad air. Stuff happens, R'dek; no one can avoid it and it isn't anyone's fault."

R'dek seemed to take some consolation in this, but still, getting him to his feet and out of the cave at first took more out of him than Rodne was pleased about. He should have insisted on leaving yesterday, Rodne worried to himself, for R'dek was clearly sicker and weaker than he'd let on. The fresh air and sun did seem to revive R'dek somewhat, however, and with Rodne's help, they did make fairly good progress after a bit.

They took a long break at mid day, though R'dek didn't eat as much as Rodne wished he would have, and his strength seemed somewhat restored as they continued on their way once again. By late afternoon, however, R'dek's energy was flagging badly, and Rodne knew that they'd have to make camp far short of the usual spot. He'd told himself to expect that -even had a good camping spot planned out in his mind- but as he settled R'dek with calm words that he did not entirely feel, Rodne knew that he'd hoped for more. If they kept this pace he knew they might make it to Lakeside in three days, but Rodne also knew that R'dek would almost certainly not be able to keep this pace, and that he would get sicker and weaker as they went on.

It would more likely be four days or more before they reached the village and Caresn's aid and that, Rodne worried increasingly, would be too late. There was a quiet desperation growing in Rodne's heart as he curled up behind his feverish lover in the tent that first night, and all night long he wracked his brain for a better solution.

None had come by morning, of course and, of course, R'dek was sicker still, hard to wake and uncertain of where he was at first. When he did finally wake he would take nothing more than honey sweetened tea for breakfast and had real trouble standing upright for the first time. Rodne got him going mainly by unremitting browbeating and that proved effective enough for the first part of the day. More browbeating was required to get R'dek to take any solid food at mid day and when Rodne deemed it time to move on it was as if R'dek had not rested at all.

It took everything they had to make it to the usual camping spot, and when they reached it R'dek simply collapsed. Rodne wanted desperately to do the same, but he couldn't. Instead he ended up carrying R'dek over to the shelter he'd built there and making some broth which he had to coax a half awake R'dek into drinking. It was all Rodne could do to make himself drink more of the same and curl up at R'dek's side, miserable and afraid and sleepless.

R'dek woke in the hours just before sunrise, thrashing restlessly in his sleeping furs and speaking in a tongue Rodne did not know. Rodne had heard R'dek speak this language only in snippets before and hearing him ramble on as though he had forgotten how to speak words Rodne could understand put Rodne's heart in his throat. R'dek's fever seemed to have reached new heights as well, and Rodne determined at that moment that they must get to Caresn without further delay, no matter what it took.

Without even trying to get food into either of them, Rodne hastily bundled up their belongings and, as the first rays of sun came over the horizon, levered an incoherently protesting R'dek to his feet and set off down the mountain. R'dek did remarkably well at first, likely because he was delirious, Rodne reflected, but his strength began to give out long before mid day. At first he was only leaning heavily against Rodne, but as the day went on Rodne was taking more and more of R'dek's weight until shortly after mid day when R'dek simply slumped to the ground and would not move.

"I am afraid we have come to the point where you will have to carry me," R'dek said, suddenly troublingly lucid.

"I said I would," Rodne answered him, carefully not thinking how he would manage it, nor how long his strength would have to hold out. Instead he stooped to lift his lover in his arms, cradling him as if he were a child. R'dek weighed far too little, Rodne reflected with concern, for all that he was a small man he was also strong and sturdy, or rather, he had been three days ago. Held so close, Rodne could all but feel R'dek's strength and vitality seeping away by the minute, and he knew that he would find the strength within him, somehow, to get R'dek to Lakeside today.

It was a nightmarish journey. R'dek did not speak again, neither in a tongue Rodne understood nor the other, which he presumed was from R'dek's childhood. Instead he lay supine in Rodne's arms, his over-warm breath falling too rapidly onto Rodne's shoulder. Rodne did not dare stop, for fear that he would not be able to start again, and so he neither ate nor drank for the whole rest of the day. It was fortunate that he knew the path so well that he could have walked it blindfolded, his feet finding their way by instinct, for with R'dek in his arms he could not see the path before him, and to stumble and fall would be disastrous.

Rodne could never say what kept him going at the end, save that he knew he was close and that the path was mainly level here and very well trodden at the end. He could never remember much of that time either, until the moment, some time around dusk, when he came stumbling in to the village's central green, meaning to lay R'dek gently on the ground and instead simply collapsing. He'd wanted to call for help but he couldn't seem to find the strength. Fortunately, it was not needed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caresn, the shaman, does a working, Rodne reluctantly helps. Will they be able to save R'dek?

Evidently he had been spotted on the way in and already villagers were running to help. Headwoman Li'bet was there at his side first, and then there were Caresn and Loren coming now and people were asking him things and Rodne tried to answer them but he wasn't sure he was making any sense.

"He fell," Rodne said, gesturing weakly toward R'dek. "He fell out of a tree and I wanted to bring him here right away but he didn't want to come and then the next day I knew we had to so then he said yes, but he was already sick then and he couldn't walk very much because of his leg... Did I mention that it was his leg that was hurt? But I knew we had to get here somehow so I tried to help him but he just kept getting worse and worse and, oh Gods it's too late, isn't it? I tried, I really did, to get him here as fast as I could, but he was so sick... he was speaking some language I couldn't even understand yesterday and now he isn't speaking at all and Gods, Gods, don't let it be too late, please. I tried, I tried..."

Rodne suddenly realized that he was feeling more than a little light headed and somebody was pressing a flask to his lips and, Gods, he'd had no idea he was so thirsty.

"Rodne," Li'bet was speaking to him, supporting him with an arm around his shoulder. "Rodne," she said again. "You did it, you got him here and Caresn is looking at him now."

"Caresn?" Rodney looked up now to see where the healer was kneeling beside his lover, his tunic drawn back to reveal the injured leg, gory with fresh blood and matter. The sight made Rodne feel ill for a moment and he swayed a bit where he was kneeling. A moment later Caresn was by his side and Loren was lifting R'dek up, preparing to carry him somewhere.

"I'm here, lad," Caresn's voice was soft and reassuring. ""You've done wonders to get him here and we're taking him back to my hut now to do what can be done, but I'm going to need your help as well."

"It's not too late?" Rodne cringed at the tone of helpless pleading in his voice.

"R'dek is in a bad way, there's no denying that," Caresn confirmed, "but I'd say he's got a good chance of recovering, if the working goes well." Caresn and Li'bet helped him to his feet as Rodne tried to focus on the healer's words and what they meant.

"A 'working'?" he repeated. "Oh Gods, Caresn, you're not going to..." Rodne had always respected Caresn's knowledge and skill as an herbalist, and his unique understanding of the human body, but his occasional practice of going into a trance and consulting with 'spirits' -for the most part a turtle which he called by the name, Turtur- in order to help bring about healing in his more extreme cases, left Rodne distinctly unsettled.

"Rodne, R'dek is far too ill for the usual herbs and other treatments to work," Caresn explained as they followed Loren, carrying R'dek, over to the healer's hut. "And I've my suspicions that they might never have been enough, even if I'd had him from the start. What kind of tree was it, Rodne, that R'dek injured himself on?"

"What kind of tree?" Rodne squawked indignantly. "What difference... alright, fine; it was a sweetwood. Does that help?"

"Unfortunately, it doesn't help R'dek one bit," Caresn answered with a grave expression. "Rodne, ye know how putting chips of sweetwood in your bedding keeps the fleas out, aye?" Rodne nodded. It was something everyone knew.

"Well the reason it does that is because it contains a tiny bit of poison," Caresn explained, "more than enough to send such wee beasties off, but not enough to harm a man... that is unless it gets inside you. Surely ye've noticed how getting a splinter of sweetwood is always more painful than any other kind?"

Come to think of it, Rodne reflected, it was... and he'd probably left more than a few inside R'dek's injury. "Dammit," Rodne swore sadly. "I really tried to get them all out, Caresn, but it was hurting him so much..."

"Rodne," Caresn laid a hand on his shoulder as they stepped into the sweet smelling darkness of the healer's hut. "No one could have gotten all of the splinters out of a wound like that, and you did better than most. Ye mustn't fret over it."

Rodne appreciated the kind words, but there was no way he could keep from fretting -not when R'dek lay so lifelessly where Loren had laid him on Caresn's spare pallet, the sweat shining on his brow and the too rapid rise and fall of his chest the only signs of life. Collapsing with exhaustion beside the fire, Rodne watched as Loren helped Caresn remove R'dek's garments and then clean the wound using water and hanks of freshly cut sweetgrass from a basket by the door.

Rodne moved almost reflexively to build up the fire as they tossed the wet, befouled handfuls of grass there to be burned, and soon the hut was filled with the scent of sweetgrass smoke. They were done with this unpleasant task soon enough and when they were Loren asked if there was anything else he was needed for. Caresn thanked him and told him no.

"Only be sure to mention to Meera that we'll be wanting tea in the morning." Caresn said as they parted. Loren placed a gentle kiss on the healer's forehead as he stood at the threshold, then took his leave, letting the hide curtain fall closed after him.

"Thank you for minding the fire, Rodne," Caresn said as he turned to fetch a small wooden chest from the foot of his bed. He set this on the bed and then went to another corner of the hut to pick up a medium sized frame drum and a basket full of sweetwood chips and the odd, white berries from the yellow-wood tree. He tossed a hand-full of this mixture onto the fire as he sat beside Rodne, handing him the frame drum.

Rodne held the frame drum dumbly for a moment, before it dawned on him what Caresn meant by handing it to him. "Oh, no no no no..." he objected, panicking. "I can't... I've never... Caresn, I have no sense of rhythm -none at all..."

"That's not what I see when you're dancing with R'dek at mid-winters," Caresn commented with a kind smile. "And Rodne, you are the very best person to do this, for the working to be as successful as possible. You and R'dek, you've a connection. You carry him in your heart just as you carried him in your arms today, and you can lend him strength when he needs it."

Rodne glanced over at where his lover lay and knew that R'dek needed all the strength he could get right now. He swallowed and bowed his head. "Okay," he said softly, nervously turning the drum over in his hands. "What do I need to do?"

The firelight seemed to accentuate the gentle affection in Caresn's deep blue eyes as he lifted a hand to lay briefly on Rodne's face. "Just keep a simple, steady rhythm going through the whole working," he said. "And don't stop till I say. I'll show you the rhythm I need you to use."

Rodne nodded solemnly, his exhaustion forgotten, as he watched Caresn beat out a slow, steady heartbeat rhythm on his knee. Nodding once again, Rodne took up the drum, trying to match Caresn's rhythm and not quite succeeding.

"Can ye find yer own heartbeat?" Caresn suggested as Rodne's rhythm faltered. Rodne bit his lip and tried, finding it soon enough but finding it to be rather more rapid than the rhythm Caresn had shown him.

"Aye, that's the idea," Caresn said with a smile as Rodne struck out the rhythm of his own heartbeat on the drum. "Now I just need you to relax a bit..." Rodne flashed the healer an incredulous look.

"You can do it, Rodne," Caresn said with confidence. "Just close your eyes for a bit and draw a slow, deep breath... now another... again. That's good. Now I want you to imagine the most relaxing sight you can think of..."

"Clear, blue skies..." Rodne murmured, wondering where that had come from, for all that it was just the right thing. He could actually feel his own heartbeat slowing.

"Aye, that's the idea," Caresn said. "Now try the drum again."

Rodne did, feeling the steady, even rhythm flow from him almost effortlessly this time.

"Perfect, lad," Caresn said. "That's perfect. Now you practice for just a bit while I get ready."

Ready for the working... on R'dek. Rodne felt the nervousness rise in him again, but combated it with the vision he had conjured up before. Clear, blue skies, he thought, closing his eyes and concentrating on his drumming. He could hear Caresn opening the box on his bed, removing things that rattled and rustled and a little while later he heard the box close again and heard Caresn draw a long, steadying breath.

"That's quite good, Rodne," Caresn said softly, and Rodne opened his eyes to see the healer bedecked in dozens of necklaces of bead, bone and other indescribable talismans. He also now wore a mask-like headpiece that, lit by the flickering light of the fire, transformed his friend's face into something less familiar -almost otherworldly.

With practiced ease, Caresn threw another handful of wood chips and berries onto the fire and the sweet, pungent smoke rose up again, filling the small space of the healer's hut. "Now when you start the drumming again, Rodne," Caresn said, "I'll need you to keep it going, without stopping till I tell you, no matter what happens, or what I do. D'ye understand?" Rodne nodded silently.

"The drumming will be our lifeline, Rodne, mine and R'dek's, so you mustn't stop for anything," Caresn elaborated.

"No pressure, then," Rodne said with a nervous frown, stroking his hands over the surface of the drum.

"I've every confidence in you, Rodne," Caresn said sincerely, turning to kneel beside where R'dek lay. "You can start whenever you're ready."

Rodne swallowed back any of several replies about how he would never be ready, and instead brought his vision of clear, blue skies back to mind, drawing in a deep breath of the pleasantly scented air. Pum-pum... Pum-pum... Pum-pum... Rodne let his hand fall with the beating of his own heart and found it came easily now -almost naturally.

Outside it would be dark now, the other residents of Lakeside retiring to dinner in their own huts, and so there were almost no sounds from beyond the walls of the healer's hut. Rodne could imagine that the three of them were alone in the universe, the only sounds those of their three breaths, the soft crackle of the fire, and his heartbeat played out on the drum. After a moment these sounds were joined by another, as Caresn began to chant softly.

It had been some time since Rodne had heard Caresn speak in the language of his childhood -like R'dek's, one that Rodne understood not one word of, though the sounds were quite different.  
Rodne let the unfamiliar sounds roll over him, noting how they fell in counterpoint to his drum beats, reinforcing his rhythm. Now, in the low light of the fire, Rodne could see Caresn moving, laying his hands first on R'dek's forehead, then his throat, his belly, his genitals. He rocked slightly as he chanted now, his hands coming to hover over R'dek's injury and the words of his chant growing more strained sounding, as though he were feeling the pain of R'dek's wound himself.

Turning his thoughts away from such unsettling ones, Rodne returned his focus to his drum beats, finding that it had not drifted away from his own heartbeat in the least. In fact, if he listened now, it seemed as if he could hear all three of their hearts, beating in sync with the drum, as though compelled by it. Rodne felt a surge of anxiety at that thought, feeling the weight of all their lives in his less than skilled hands, but he soon came to notice that he was as compelled as they were. Something -some force or spell- held them all, and Rodne could no more falter in his rhythm than he could fly like a bird.

Caresn's chanting was getting louder now, and more forceful, as though it, or he, was doing hard work, and for all Rodne knew he was. His hands lay over R'dek's leg now, spread over the surface of the wound, and Rodne could all but see how Caresn's mind was entirely focused there. He began to pant between the words of the chant, though he still did not lose the rhythm, as if he were straining to lift something of great weight.

Then suddenly Caresn was not the only one laboring thusly. Now, though the rhythm still compelled him, Rodne found it took considerable effort to move his hand to strike the drum, as though the air had gone as thick as water. He refocused himself, determined to carry his weight as instructed, no matter that it seemed more like a real weight now. Before him, still kneeling by R'dek's side, Caresn ground out one more line of his chant, then gave a shout, as if he had finally dropped his heavy burden into place, and Rodne found his own burden lifted suddenly as well. Schooling himself to keep the rhythm steady in spite of this, Rodne felt a trickle of sweat roll down his temple but did not falter. He could do this. Caresn and R'dek were counting on him.

Caresn had fallen silent now, his chanting apparently finished, and he knelt with his head bowed over R'dek, drawing long, harsh breaths. He raised his hands again a moment later, though Rodne noted that one seemed closed in a fist now, and began to run them down the length of R'dek's body, slowly at first and then more swiftly, as if brushing some dust or dirt off of him. He did this several time, punctuating the last few with a word Rodne did not recognize, then he straightened, lifting his face and hands to the sky. He spoke one last time in his old tongue, making some pronouncement or formal thanks, then dropped his hands and bowed his head, his whole body drooping with exhaustion.

"Thank you Rodne," he said after another long moment. "That will do."

Oddly, Rodne found it a little difficult to stop, finally letting his drum beats slow and fade away until they were too soft to hear. Then he lay the drum down carefully and moved to Caresn's side. "You okay?" he asked.

"Aye, luv," he said with a tired smile. "Just a wee bit knackered is all, but it went well -see?" Caresn opened the hand he had closed in a fist and inside, smeared with blood and matter, were three small slivers of rust colored wood.

"That's it?" Rodne was wondering not at Caresn's efforts, but that such small things could so quickly sicken and kill a man. Caresn understood and nodded seriously.

"Aye," he said. "Even such a little poison, when it gets past the body's defenses, can do great harm, as you've seen." He took up another handful of grass to wipe his palm clean, tossing it into the fire after the others, then turned back to his own bed where he removed the headpiece and necklaces. Rodne moved to sit by R'dek's side as he did this, laying a hand on R'dek's face to note that, though it was warm, it was not fever warm any more. He turned back to Caresn with gratitude and wonder in his gaze.

"The fever is gone," he said with profoundest relief. "Did you do that?"

"Well," Caresn said a little reluctantly, "Turtur did, mainly..."

"Um, right," said Rodne awkwardly. "So, ah, should we wrap the wound again before you fall asleep? because that's clearly what's next for you."

"Aye, ye are right about that," Caresn said with a yawn, "but I think we should let R'dek's wound breath for the night and cover it again tomorrow... If ye don't mind keeping an eye on him so he doesn't move about too much when he wakes."

"Sure," Rodne answered without thinking. He was exhausted himself, to be sure, but he doubted he'd really be able to sleep till he knew R'dek was truly better. He did seem somewhat better now, but he remained too still yet, and had not woken since before Rodne had brought him here. Rodne would not find it too difficult, he knew, to remain wakeful till he heard R'dek speak his name once again.

Caresn seemed to understand that, giving Rodne a sympathetic glance as he stepped outside briefly to pee. He fell directly into bed when he returned and Rodne settled himself by the fire, gazing at the shifting light over the coals as he listened to the sound of his lover's slow and steady breaths.

Inevitably, Rodne did doze off after some time, knees drawn up and head resting on his crossed arms, but the small sound of R'dek stirring roused him immediately. He mumbled something next, as Rodne stretched out his aching joints, speaking so softly that Rodne couldn't tell what language it was, but his next word was clearer.

"Rodne?" R'dek's voice was a bit rusty, but music to Rodne's ears nonetheless.

"Right here," Rodne assured, coming to sit stiffly at R'dek's side. "How are you feeling?"

R'dek blinked, considering. "Better, I think," he said after a moment, then, "we are in Caresn's hut?"

"Yeah," Rodne said, carefully pushing strands of hair away from R'dek's face. "How did you know?"

"The smell," R'dek said with a little smile, eyes closed. "How did I get here?"

"You don't remember?" Rodne asked, worried still that the fever and illness had somehow damaged his lover's mind.

"I..." R'dek's brows furrowed for a moment, then he opened his eyes to gaze at Rodne with a touch of puzzlement. "You...you carried me?"

"I said I would," Rodne repeated, eyes downcast.

"Rodne..." Rodne felt fingers, warm but not fever warm, brush against he cheek.

"There wasn't anything else I could do," Rodne said, his voice not quite steady. "You... you were dying. I could feel it... and I had to... I had to..."

"Sshh, Rodne," R'dek calmed him. "You did it. You got me here and I will be well now, yes?"

"More than likely," said another, sleep roughened voice, "though you'll be needing a fair piece of time to mend altogether."

"Caresn," Rodne turned toward the sound of the healer's voice. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you..."

“Nay, ye mustn’t trouble yourselves, lads,” Caresn said, sleepily good natured. “The sun’s nearly up anyhow, and Meera’ll be here in a bit with our morning tea.”

Glancing blearily over his shoulder at the door, Rodne noticed now that there was a faint grey light creeping in under the ox-hide covering the door. It meant, he realized, that he had been mostly awake for the better part of three days, and suddenly Rodne felt every bit of the exhaustion that he’d held at bay up till now, and he swayed a bit where he knelt.

“Dear me,” Caresn exclaimed, climbing out of bed and coming to Rodne’s side. “You are all done in, Rodne lad, but you can rest now. I’ll take care of things for a bit.”

He could rest? For a moment Rodne couldn’t quite grasp what that meant, until R’dek tugged his hand gently and patted the far side of the bed.

“Come,” he said, “sleep beside me so you will know I am well, and I can hold you when I sleep.”

“Oh Gods…” Rodne sighed, mindlessly pulling his tunic off, forgetting about it the second it left his hand, and crawling over to the bed, where he found himself a space between R’dek and the wall of Caresn’s hut. Stretching himself out on the bedding next to Rodne ached in the very best ways possible, and scooting close to fold R’dek in his arms caused something wrapped tightly around Rodne’s heart to unbind itself, all at once. It made his breath hitch and a moment later he was sobbing quietly against R’dek’s shoulder, broken with exhaustion and fear and relief.

“Oh, my love,” he heard R’dek sigh softly, and he felt his lover’s slender fingers moving through his hair. There was a larger hand, heavy and comforting on his shoulder as well, and Caresn’s kind voice murmuring, “There you go lad, there you go… you’ve had a hard time of it but it’s done now and you’ve been so strong and brave…”

The touches and voices soothed, and before long Rodne’s tears abated. “Thank you Caresn,” he said weakly, “and R’dek … you know I love you…”

“I do know, love. Sleep now,” R’dek said, tenderly kissing Rodne’s forehead. At that moment, that seemed like the best idea ever to Rodne, and so he did.

 

***


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> R'dek recovers, and he and Rodne gradually settle into life as long term guests in Lakeside.

R’dek watched Rodne drop off with a smile on his lips, then glanced up at Caresn to see the man looking very fondly at the two of them. “I don’t think he has any idea of the strength he has within him, do you?” he asked. R’dek shook his head.

“I will not let him forget soon,” he said solemnly. “And I think I must begin to be a little more careful with myself. I had not really faced before what I am to him, not really.”

“Ye’re both daft, I say,” Caresn said, shaking his head as he stood to pull back the hide at his door so as to let in a little light.

“We are both a little bit stupid that way, I confess,” R’dek said sheepishly, bending his head to press his lips against Rodne’s temple.

“Well, I suppose you both couldn’t be brilliant about everything,” Caresn commented, returning to kneel at R'dek’s side again. “Now, let’s have a look at how things stand this morning…”

Caresn looked over his injury, touching and prodding it from time to time, which was uncomfortable, and his subsequent dressing of it –with a poultice of honey and ground mustard seeds, among other things- was downright painful. Rodne tightened his arms around R’dek in his sleep when R’dek whimpered in pain and R’dek held him close in turn, knowing comfort so profound it almost lessened the pain. After that was the awkwardness of having Caresn help him relieve himself into an old ox bladder which Caresn tied closed and set just outside the door when he was done.

Meera came with the tea about then, bringing some still-warm-from-baking flatbreads as well, and Caresn helped R’dek drink his tea and fed him warm bread with honey on it. Never had such simple food seemed so good to R’dek.

Rodne slept through it all without taking the least notice. Though R’dek had few memories of the journey to Lakeside, the depth of Rodne’s exhaustion did bring home to him just how arduous that journey must have been. R’dek himself slept a good part of that day, and the next, which Caresn encouraged, saying that sleep was the best thing for healing. Rodne had woken enough to take a little nourishment late on that first day, then slept again all through the night, waking the next morning only because he had to pee.

His brief absence had woken R’dek and then he was wakened far more thoroughly by a chilled and shivery Rodne crawling back into bed with him, pressing his cold nose and feet close to R’dek’s warm skin. “Warm, warm warm warm...” Rodne murmured sleepily as he snuggled close and R’dek smiled in spite of the momentary discomfort, kissing his lover’s hair. They spent that second day in Caresn’s care snuggling and dozing, enduring the twice daily changing of R’dek’s dressing together, and together sharing relief at the increasing certainty that R’dek was truly on the mend. Even so, however, it was clearly going to take some time.

The next day Caresn had Rodne up and doing small errands while R’dek continued to spend most of his day sleeping, and the day after that Rodne spent much of the afternoon in a consultation with a young couple seeking to know an auspicious time to start their new family. He returned with a basket full of fresh picked berries and a blanket of a dozen or so rabbit hides all sewn together for R’dek. R’dek was touched and promptly wrapped himself in it and fell asleep.

After a handful of days confined to the spare pallet in Caresn’s hut, however, R’dek’s leg did not hurt so badly every time he moved it, and boredom began to set in. They did have visitors from time to time, and Caresn taught R’dek and Rodne a game involving dark and light colored stones and tossed sheep’s knuckles, but R’dek was no longer sleeping the days away and his usual desire to fill his time with productive work was asserting itself again.

What R’dek really wanted to do, of course, was work on his flints, but there were two major obstacles to that. The first was that, naturally, his tools and materials were back in the cave, and the second was that even if he’d had them, Caresn would never have allowed him to do the messy work of flint knapping in his hut. R’dek’s boredom, therefore, left him by turns, cross and fussy, and this began to wear on both Rodne and Caresn’s patience. It was after a day when even R’dek began to feel sorry for those caring for him that Caresn offered an option.

“Your wound is healing well enough now,” he said, “that we can try this, and it may even speed healing, but the treatment itself is quite painful I’m afraid.”

“What is this treatment?” R’dek asked.

Caresn pursed his lips thoughtfully. “The reason I’ve been insisting that you stay abed,” he explained, “is that parts of your injury are quite deep, and any movement on your part could open them again and set your healing back quite a bit. What I can do to prevent this is to seal the edges closed in the places where you wound is deepest with warm pine pitch. I’m sure you can imagine how that would be fairly painful, but after it’s done you may be able to move around a bit more safely, maybe even go outside for a spell.”

R’dek thought about that for a bit. It certainly sounded painful and Rodne, sitting at his side and holding his hand, looked a little pale, contemplating it. Still R’dek saw the sense of it, and really wanted to be free from Caresn’s hut sooner rather than later. “I think I would like you to do it,” R’dek said at last. “But I have one question: do you still have some of the lightning water I gave you last mid-winter?”

R’dek remembered fondly the look of mixed distress and anticipation on Rodne’s face when R’dek had told him that he’d made arrangements for Sitakhus, in his first trading expedition for R’dek, to visit a village where he knew they made very fine lightning water, and make a trade for several flasks. He’d had great success with this as well as many other trades and barters in that journey, and R’dek had rewarded him with a small flask of his own. The others R’dek had kept and given as gifts –one of them to Caresn last mid-winters.

“Aye…” Caresn answered him with puzzlement at first, then dawning understanding as he recalled what R’dek had told him of the liquor’s properties. “Aye, of course, to dull the pain,” he said after another moment. “I’ve not had a chance to see how it works in that way before, but I suppose I’ll see now… Just a moment.” The healer turned now to the shelves where he kept a bewildering variety of pots and jars and boxes and baskets full of the things he used in his work.  
He found what he was looking for soon enough, handing the familiar flask to R’dek and setting a small clay pot, which R’dek presumed contained the resins, down near the fire.

“That’ll take a moment to soften,” Caresn explained. “While we’re waiting we’ll need to remove your dressing and clean the wound.”

R’dek nodded, grimacing slightly, and pulled the stopper from the flask of lightning water. He wished he’d thought to ask after it earlier, but at least he had it now. Rodne, for all that he found blood and the like extremely distasteful, had learned to be an able assistant to Caresn when he was changing R’dek’s dressings, and R’dek was pleased to have him near.

R'dek laid into the lightning water with a will, and by the time Rodne and Caresn were finished with their task he was feeling fairly lightheaded. "This," he said, lifting the flask, "represents a great improvement. We need to start making it here so that others may have the same benefit, Caresn."

"You know how to make it?" Rodne said. "Why have you been trading for it, then?"

"Because it is fairly complicated process," R'dek explained, "and of the two ways to make it, the better way requires metal -two large bowls made of copper- and getting to a place where one can find such things will require a long journey. Also, anyone who has such things to trade will want a great deal of trade goods in exchange."

And they might not want his fine stone knives and spear points, either, R'dek mused to himself. In the places where they had copper, they sometimes had the harder, brown metal, called bronze, which made much finer weapons than his best flints. He desired more than anything to learn the secret of making and working such metal, but it was too rare yet.

"I don't think Sitakhus would mind being sent on a longer journey," Rodne commented as Caresn disposed of R'dek's old dressings in the fire. "He seems to really like this new trading thing he's been doing for you."

"He might not mind," Caresn said, poking at the pot of resins, "but Chana, who may be carrying a child of his already, won't likely care for the idea of having her man gone for so long."

"There is that," R'dek allowed as he let his head fall back on the bed and felt the room tilt around him. "You know, I think I am ready for your treatment now, Caresn," he said, slurring his words just a bit.

"Aye, it would seem you are," Caresn said with an indulgent smile, stirring the contents of the pitch pot with a small brush. "And it looks as if I am as well. Rodne, you'll need to hold him still, no matter how drunk he is."

Rodne nodded grimly and came to sit at R'dek's side, across from Caresn, laying his hands on R'dek's hips. R'dek reached up to touch Rodne's face, moved by the worry in his wide, blue eyes. "I am glad you're here, love," he said, and then Caresn laid the first daub of warm pitch on his wound and R'dek could not stop himself from screaming.

It was far and away the most horrid pain R'dek had ever endured, and it went on for what seemed forever. It did end, eventually, and when it did R'dek found Rodne kissing the tears on his face and making small, broken, calming noises.

"It's all over now, R'dek," he murmured. "It's all done. You're ok now; you're ok, shhh... shhh... You want some more lighting water?"

"Please..." R'dek rasped, reaching out with shaking hands for the flask Rodne carefully laid there.

"You should have some regular water too," Caresn said, handing him a cup full. "And you should stay warm and quiet for the rest of the day. We'll dress the wound again tomorrow and then we'll see if you're ready to try moving about a bit. How are you feeling now, lad?"

"A little better," R'dek said shakily when he had finished his cup of water. "May I have another, please?"

"Aye, of course," Caresn said, refilling the cup and handing it back. "You must have as much as you like. It's medicine your body needs right now."

"So is sleep, I think," R'dek said when he had finished his second cup of water, he speech slurring again, but more from fatigue now than from the influence of the lightning water.

"Right you are, lad," said Caresn, patting his shoulder gently. "Sleep is one of the best medicines there is, and I'm thinking that's what you need most right now."

"Yeah, I think I could use a little nap myself," Rodne said as R'dek mumbled his concurrence with Caresn's advice and felt Rodne stretch out along side him. Already the searing pain in his leg was ebbing, and the relief of it, along with the warmth of his lover's closeness, was enough to send him right to sleep.

***

 

R'dek did not wake till the next morning, and he was ravenous when he woke, which Caresn said was the best of signs. Rodne woke too after a bit so that the three of them breakfasted together on tea and fresh bread with honey, and some newly picked berries that Meera brought with their tea that morning. When they had finished Caresn followed his usual routine of looking over R'dek's injury and dressing it again. He seemed pleased with it and the process of dressing it this morning seemed notably less painful than it had in the past. Caresn nodded when R'dek mentioned this.

"The pitch is keeping a lot of things from moving," he explained, "which is why it hurts less, and that means it's working as intended. If you'd like we can try walking about the hut just a bit, later today and if that goes well maybe you can venture out tomorrow." R'dek grinned at the prospect of fresh air and getting to look at something besides the walls of Caresn's hut.

"Not that you have not been a most gracious host, Caresn," R'dek hastened to add when he saw that the healer seemed to be reading his thoughts. "But I would be very happy to spend some time somewhere other than here."

"Believe me, lad," Caresn said with a laugh, "I've had any number of guests with far less pleasant dispositions that you, and I don't imagine that I'd take so well to being cooped up in my own room for days at a time."

It was sometime after lunch that R'dek decided that he wanted to try standing and walking a little, in large part because he was desperate to go back to peeing while standing up, and this he was able to do, with Rodne to lean on. He hobbled around Caresn's hut just a little too, using a crutch that Caresn provided, until he was exhausted, which took much less time than R'dek liked.

Caresn was very encouraging, however, and assured R'dek that his strength and stamina would return quickly, now that he was able to be a little active again. R'dek saw the truth of this when he ventured outside the next day, for he was able to hobble about for twice as long as he had the previous day, and R'dek would swear that the time he spent basking in the sun afterward imbued him with more energy still. Caresn did not deny that this might be so.

This, then, became R'dek's routine for the next few days. He would wake and breakfast with Rodne and Caresn, endure the decreasingly uncomfortable changing of his dressing, then venture out with Rodne to sit by the central firepit and soak in the late summer sun. They'd have lunch there most days, and afterwards R'dek often napped -which Caresn insisted was a healthy habit while he was still healing. Sometimes he napped outside in the sun; sometimes it was too hot, or looking to rain and he napped back in Caresn's hut. Sometimes Rodne joined him there, because he was rather fond of napping, and because he had lately been staying up nights to continue with his stargazing.

They chatted about this in the late afternoon sun, when R'dek would return to the firepit after his nap, and afterward they would join Caresn for the evening meal. There were variations to this routine, of course. Sometimes Caresn would be away caring for other patients in the village, and Rodne would be called upon for consultations from time to time. Radek also found himself spending time with some of the other villagers as he relaxed on his accustomed spot on one of the logs ringing the firepit.

He'd asked Meera to cut him some willow canes so that he could make snowshoes, far in advance of their being needed, but it was something to fill his time. Soon he was teaching Meera and some of the other young women of the village how to make them, and that made the time fly by most pleasantly. Before too long he had another pupil of sorts as well. 

Kvena'ah, who had been the best flint knapper in Lakeside before R'dek showed up had, understandably, been a little frosty toward the toolmaker when he first arrived. R'dek had experienced similar conflicts in other villages he visited where there was a resident flint knapper, and he'd always taken pains to be as cordial and deferential as possible with such people. Unfortunately, R'dek's initial promises that he would not be staying in Lakeside had proven false, and Kvena'ah had not taken kindly to this development. 

R'dek felt bad about this, and had tried to make it clear to everyone that, after his first round of trades with the residents of Lakeside, all the rest of his work would be reserved for trading with neighboring and more distant villages. Kvena'ah had been skeptical at first, but more than a year had passed now since R'dek had instituted this policy, and the man had to know by now that R'dek was as good as his word -this time.

R'dek hadn't heard anything about this, one way or the other, though, and so was a little surprised to see Kvena'ah approaching him one day as he lounged by the firepit, carrying a hide wrapped bundle. To R'dek's even greater surprise, Kvena'ah had a trade in mind -a spare set of tools and flints in exchange for R'dek teaching him some of his techniques. R'dek would, naturally, have preferred his own tools, which he had adapted to fit his hands and personal style long ago, but by now he was eager to have any tools, and so accepted them, and Kvena'ah's deal with gratitude.

Thus it was that, on a quiet afternoon, as R'dek and Kvena'ah sat happily knapping away by the firepit, with Rodne beside him contentedly scratching figures on a piece of slate, Yinte, who'd been out scaring birds by the west side grain fields, came running into the village, calling out his news.

"Strangers!" he cried. "There are two strangers on the south road, coming in to the village!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strangers come to Lakeside, and they bring very troubling news indeed.

"Traders?" R'dek asked immediately, because that seemed most likely.

"I don't know," said Yinte, "but... I don't think they look like traders. They look... fierce, maybe."

"Are you saying they could be dangerous?" Kvena'ah asked worriedly.

The boy shrugged. "Maybe," he said. "But they look different from any other strangers I've seen."

"How so?" R'dek considered that he might be the most widely traveled of anyone in Lakeside, and that he might be able to shed some light on the identity of these strangers and whether or not they were actually dangerous.

"The man," Yinte replied immediately, "he was really tall, and he had hair like... like a lion's, and the woman, her hair was the color of sweetwood bark."

"And were they dark skinned?" R'dek asked, sifting through his memories of all the far flung travelers he'd met in his life.

"A little," Yinte said. "It's like the color of the honey that my aunt Rinta gets from the forest in the Fall."

R'dek nodded. "I have seen such people, I think," he said. "It is likely that they are from far to the south and east -farther than I have come even. It seems more likely that they would be traders, or perhaps story tellers, but probably not dangerous." Of course it was also quite possible that they were adventurers, looking for a fight or some other trouble, but R'dek knew better than to start such rumors before the strangers had even arrived.

"And you know this because everyone from the south and east are peaceful and polite?" Kvena'ah snipped suspiciously. Though his particular quarrel with R'dek had been solved, R'dek had come to see that the man was just plain prickly tempered, and he'd learned to ignore it.

"No," said Rodne suddenly, who hadn't seemed to be paying any attention but evidently had, in fact. "He knows this because there are only two of them, and it's a man and a woman. They might be refugees too, though."

"I don't think they're refugees," Yinte put in. "Refugees usually look tired and hungry, and these two don't look like that at all."

"Fair enough," Rodne said with a shrug and went back to his scribbling. Someone had sent word to Li'bet by now, however, and she arrived in the company of a few of the hunters who happened to be in the village. She asked Yinte to repeat for her what he'd told the others.

"R'dek thinks they're from far away, from the south and east," he concluded when he had told his tale.

"Does he?" Li'bet said with a smile. "It would seem to be good fortune that you are a guest in our village just now, to be our expert on foreigners."

R'dek blushed. "This is my expertise," he said, gesturing at the mess of flint flakes all around his feet. "If I have any knowledge other than this, it is only because I am myself a foreigner in these parts."

"A foreigner perhaps," said the headwoman, coming to sit on an adjacent log, "but not a stranger any longer." She smiled warmly at R'dek as she sat. "Perhaps we will be able to say the same of these visitors as well, before too long."

A small crowd of villagers gathered as the visitors drew nearer and word of their impending arrival spread. Many were children who gathered now to watch R'dek while he worked, while others played noisily as they waited. They fell quiet as the strangers came into the village, however, and the whole crowd became silent when they approached. R'dek watched with admiration at how Li'bet drew herself up to meet the strangers, looking almost regal even as she stood before the two taller travelers.

They did look a little fierce, R'dek had to admit that Yinte had been right about that. The man wore his hair in locks, as R'dek had seen only once on a man who claimed to have been a sailor on the southern sea, but what was more astonishing was the weapon he carried, which R'dek recognized but had not seen any such in a long time, and never of such size. The raiders who menaced the villages of his homeland used such weapons, called 'bows', but those were no longer than a man's arm. This man carried one that looked to be over half his height, which was quite considerable on it's own.

The woman, whose hair was indeed a rather striking color, walked with a long staff, which stood a little taller than her shoulder and R'dek imagined that she could use it as more than a walking stick, from the way she gripped it. They walked shoulder to shoulder as they approached, and stood that way when they came to stop before the headwoman. They are fighters, R'dek thought to himself, and they fight together, but they have not come here to fight us. He was sure of it.

"Greetings travelers," Li'bet said. "You have come to the village of Lakeside, and I am Li’bet, the Headwoman here. We are happy to make you welcome if you come with peaceful intentions."

"Greetings to you as well, headwoman," the red haired woman answered cordially. "I am Teleya, and my companion is R'non. Our intentions are indeed peaceful, but our mission, I am sorry to report, is not a happy one. We have come to warn you that that there are people coming whose intentions are not at all peaceful. They know of your village and will have it's riches, by means both violent and cruel."

The woman's words hung in the silent air for a long moment as all the villagers felt the slow shock of their portent. R'dek felt it too, but for him they also brought a horrible sense of recognition.

"No!" In his shock, R'dek forgot his injury for a moment and struggled to stand. Only Rodne's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "No, it cannot be!" he cried. "You speak of raiders, but I have journeyed all my life to move beyond their reach. They cannot be here!"

"I am sorry, my friend," Teleya said, and her gaze was truly sorrowful. "But if you know of the raiders, you know that they ride swift beasts they call horses, and they by this means they can travel in a year the distance it might take a man half his life to walk. They move westward as birds fly south in the Fall, and they will not stop till they come to the westward sea. There is no where you can travel, my friend, to be beyond their reach."

R'dek felt a plummeting sense of despair, only faintly aware that Rodne had finally set down his slate and moved to put an arm around R'dek's shoulders, as much a gesture of protection as it was comfort. R'dek had lowered his head to rest in his hands and so when Li'bet spoke next he did not see her, but heard how her voice had grown hard.

"Are you agents of theirs," she demanded, "come to announce their arrival and strike fear into our hearts so that we will capitulate all the quicker?"

"This is not our intention, headwoman" Telaya spoke firmly, "I swear it. R'non and I have pledged our lives to work against these men, and we come to the villages in their path to warn them and help them fight against them if they will."

"Fight them!?" Li’bet spread her arms to take in all the villagers gathered there. "We are hunters and fisher-folk and craftsmen and women, not fighters. How are we to oppose such men as you describe?"

Telaya nodded her understanding, and there was nothing condescending in her manner, which R'dek found surprising. "There are means even for people untrained in fighting to defend themselves, and these we are willing to teach. Also, some villages chose not to fight, but to hide. If this is your choice, we will respect that and aid in what ways we can, but if you would think to treat with these men, or bargain with them, then I must tell you that we cannot help, and that you will not succeed. They do not bargain in good faith, and will not consent to any deal, in any case, that does not include some of your women and children to be taken as slaves."

R'dek could hear the horrified gasp from the crowd of villagers at this prospect, knowing that they must all be thinking that there would be no place for them all to hide on the open grasslands and small patches of forest that surrounded Lakeside. He and Rodne might retreat to their cave and be perfectly safe, he reflected, but how could they abandon their friends? He lifted his head to glance over at Rodne and saw only naked distress on his lover's face. It was clear that Rodne was thinking the same and could not bear the idea either.

"What if we gathered a generous portion of our food and animals, and other goods and left them at the edge of the village for them to take," Kvena'ah was asking, his voice shaking just a bit as he spoke. "Wouldn't they take it and leave us in peace? Wouldn't it be less trouble for them?"

"I am sorry to say that it would not," Telaya answered him. "For what you deem 'trouble' these men take great joy in. Nothing pleases them more than doing violence and causing destruction, and an offering such as you suggest would only delay them for a moment, and serve to entice them to take further riches from your village by force."

Images of the violence done to his own village long ago, the burning and killing, the screams of terror and agony were all R'dek could see and hear for a moment, and he felt his hands curl into fists of helpless rage. But no. He would not be helpless. He was no longer a boy, but a man who had traveled far and become a master at the crafting of weapons and tools. They were, in fact, the very weapons and tools that could be turned to the uses they needed now, only neither Rodne nor the people of Lakeside knew it.

"We _can_ fight them!" he burst out suddenly, surprising Rodne terribly. "There are ways, and I know them. I can teach you, show you. I will _not_ let it happen here as happened in my own village!"

"You make weapons." The woman's companion, R'non, spoke for the first time, his dark eyes falling on R'dek with a penetrating gaze.

"I make tools," R'dek said, moving his foot among the flint shards so that they clinked and rattled against one another. "And weapons for hunting, but I can make weapons for war, though I have chosen not to do so before now."

"Can you make one of these?" he asked, drawing forth and stringing the massive bow he carried and, with cat-like speed, drawing an arrow from the quiver on his back and nocking it to the bow. He turned away from the crowd then and loosed it, and R'dek heard a collective gasp from those watching as the missile sailed far, far over the grassland, striking the trunk of a tree countless paces distant. None of the residents of Lakeside had ever seen the like, R'dek was sure, and he himself had never seen a bow which shot so far, or with such force.

"I could," he said nodding slowly, "but it would take time, and I think we may not have so much, yes?"

"How much time do we have?" Li'bet asked.

Telaya inclined her head, thinking. "A handful of days, no more," she finally said. "Possibly less. They are already in the village a day's walk to the east of here, but they have just taken it and will be some few days 'enjoying' themselves there."

R'dek knew just what sorts of 'pleasures' the raiders would be taking in that village, and he cringed at the thought. Rodne knew too, and his arm came back around R'dek's waist, pulling him close.

"And did you 'help' those people fight the raiders?" Kvena'ah asked, his voice full of accusation he was not brave enough speak.

"Didn't believe us," R'non answered with a shrug. "Wasn't anything we could do."

"We might have made the same mistake," Li'bet said charitably, "had it not been for our well traveled friends, so I am grateful to them and to you. We must make plans now, and we must call out hunters back. Yinte," she turned to the lad who stood with the crowd of older boys, gazing with open admiration at the leonine stranger and his amazing weapon. "You know where they have gone, yes?"

He nodded, standing straight and trying his best to look as grownup as possible. "They've gone to the northern grasslands, to find the herds that graze there. I can find them in a day, I am sure."

"Go stealthily as well as swiftly, Yinte," the headwoman commanded him. "And do the same as you return. If these raiders would move on us next they may already have watchers nearby."

"I will do as you say, headwoman," Yinte said, and promptly sprinted off to his parent's hut to gather the things he would need for his journey. Li'bet turned to the rest of the villagers then, addressing them calmly, as though none of this came as a surprise to her, for which R'dek found himself admiring her greatly.

"The rest of you," she said. "As we cannot make a fortress of our village, we must each make one of our own homes. Gather your belongings, your beasts and fowls, and keep them close, likewise with your children. What we cannot keep close in the days to come, we are libel to lose, and I think we can afford to lose little."

The villagers dispersed then, leaving only himself, Rodne, Caresn -who had come and listened speechlessly the whole while- and the two strangers along with Headwoman Li'bet, lingering by the firepit. "I am not certain," Telaya said carefully to Li'bet, "that the advice you have just given your people will have much use when the raiders come."

Li'bet smiled and nodded in concurrence. "Likely not," she said, "but its use for now is that they will occupy themselves with some worthwhile labor rather than gossiping amongst themselves and heightening the fear and uncertainty everyone already feels. I trust that you and R'dek will have other, more directly useful tasks to set before them by the time the hunters return, but they need something to fill the hours until then."

"Makes sense," R'non said with a shrug, setting out at a jog to retrieve the arrow he had loosed earlier.

"You are a wise leader," Teleya acknowledged, "and I do very much hope that we may able to help you repel the raiders, but I must tell you..." the traveler cast her eyes over the village and lake beyond it, "your settlement presents... some serious challenges with regard to its defense."

"I've no doubts about that," said Li'bet, sitting on a log not far from R'dek and Rodne and inviting Teleya to do the same. "Have you any ideas on how it might be managed?"

"I have," R'dek spoke up, and Teleya met his eyes as she sat, offering him a sad smile.

"I think that you and I," she said, "may share a similar history, yes?"

R'dek nodded. "I am R'dek, of the village we called Below Hostyn Mountain. There may be a village there still, but after most of my family was killed by the raiders, there was very little to keep me there, and a great deal to entice me to leave that place forever."

"I know your sorrow too well, R'dek of Hostyn Mountain," Teleya said solemnly. "Of the village where Ron'n and I grew up, I think nothing remains. It was too small to have any name, and when the raiders had finished with it, no one remained alive save for Ron'n and myself."

"I am sorry to hear it," R'dek said, his head bowed, "and sorrier still that I have heard too many stories like it. Let me tell you a different sort of story instead -of villages who made war with one another, and learned of the ways that horses can be vulnerable, for all that they may lend swiftness and power to an enemy."

"I, ah..." R'dek was surprised to hear Caresn speak from behind him, his voice uncertain. "I may have a story or two of that sort myself, if you'd like to hear it."

"Of course, Caresn," Li'bet said, offering him a seat beside her on the log where she sat. "Join our council and with so many wise heads we are sure to devise a way to save our village."

For all that he knew the terror of the raiders, and what difficulties lay ahead for them, R'dek heard the confidence and strength in the headwoman's voice, and and found that he believed her, and knew hope.

 

***

 

By late that afternoon, Li'bet had new instructions to keep the residents of Lakeside busy, and these were activities which even R’non agreed were likely to prove effective in managing the defence of the village. The fisherfolk and those who wove their nets were given the task of spinning as much as they could of the strongest cord they could make. Others were instructed to dig pits all around the village which were to be filled with water, for Teleya had told them, and R'dek had concurred, that the raiders would use fire against them. The younger residents of Lakeside had been given the task of finding sticks of certain lengths and stoutness, which were to serve various purposes.

Limbs the length of a man's leg, and of similar stoutness were gathered, sharpened at both ends, and pounded into the ground around the borders of the village, at an angle facing outwards. Masses of these, at a pace or two's thickness, Caresn had seen used to defend villages in the north from herds of cattle which had been stampeded to trample villages in the tribal wars he'd known as a lad. R'dek and the two strangers agreed that they would be equally effective in turning away charging riders, as horses would not dare to ride at full speed into such an obstacle.

Ringing the whole village in such a barricade would have been the work of a moon or more, which none of them thought they would really have, so Caresn's 'cattle barricades' were placed at strategic locations around the borders of the village, intended to entice riders into other, less visible obstacles. It was fortunate that no one had as yet harvested the long grasses from around the edges of the village, for these would serve to conceal the trip-lines R'dek described for them, and that Rodne would set in place.

This was the purpose of the great lengths of cord the netmakers were spinning, and Rodne tested them all for strength and consistency, berating the spinners mercilessly if any fell below his standards. Li'bet had to come eventually, to ask him not to reduce the netmakers to tears anymore, as they surely knew as well as he what was at stake. After that Rodne contented himself with teaching the headwoman the special knots he had devised for his trapmaking, which would serve to fix the cords as firmly as possible to the stakes.

R'dek himself was engaged in carving some of the sturdiest sticks -ones that were about the length and thickness of his forearm- into a [curious object](http://www.crt.state.la.us/archaeology/expeditions/atlatlanticshandout.html) with a smooth grip on one end and a sort of small cup on the other. He'd made three of these by the time the hunters returned to camp, and he called them together the following morning for a demonstration. Loren had returned with the hunters, very late the night before, and had come to the healer's hut upon his arrival, not knowing for sure if Caresn still had guests. This was probably a common enough occurrence, however, given the nature of Caresn's work, and he knew well enough how to move quietly.

R'dek had woken briefly to the sounds of their whispered greetings and few quiet kisses and then all fell quiet again and R'dek had returned to sleep. Loren was still there, curled protectively around the healer in his bed, when they woke the next morning, much to Rodne's confusion, as he had not heard the hunter return during the night. They discussed their plans with Loren over breakfast, and he expressed his approval. R'dek was reluctant to explain just what purpose his oddly carved sticks would serve, however, knowing that a demonstration would prove far more effective. He told Loren to bring his best spear, and to come with the other hunters to a spot at the edge of the village where R'dek would show them all just what they were for.

It had taken little time for R'dek to earn the hunters' respect when he'd first come to Lakeside nearly three years ago, for his spearpoints were particularly fine, and he knew this. Being small and slightly built, however, R'dek also knew that his physical prowess was never going to command much respect from these men, and today, that fact would add impact to the demonstration he was about to make.

It was a double handful of curious hunters, along with Rodne and some of the older lads who aspired to be hunters soon, that gathered at the meeting spot R'dek had indicated, and R'dek was pleased at the turn-out. He began his demonstration with the familiar, asking Loren to throw his spear as far as he could. There was some palaver amongst the hunters about this, for Loren held the record for this feat in the village, and had for some years. His throw was good and was met with expressions of admiration from the crowd, especially from the younger ones. R'dek sent one of these to measure the throw and fetch the spear.

"Two hundred ten paces," the lad said, jogging back up to the crowd with Loren's spear in his hand. "The same as at the midsummer games." Loren smiled and graciously accepted the congratulations of his peers.

"Now," R'dek said to the crowd as he took the spear from the hunter's hand. "Who thinks that I would be able to beat that record?" This received the jocular response R'dek expected, and he didn't mind. He knew, as he lifted Loren's spear and fitted the butt end into the cup shaped part of his thrower, that all those men joking and laughing now had a real surprise coming. He had to drop his crutch to position the spear and thrower correctly, however, and quickly discovered that his injured leg was not going to support him without it. Wincing, he called Rodne to his side.

"Will you let me lean on you for a moment?" he asked. "I need to use both my hands for this."

"Sure," Rodne agreed without hesitation, stepping close to R'dek and wrapping an arm around his waist. R'dek smiled affectionately at his lover, knowing that he'd preferred to keep his personal life -his preference for men in his bed in particular- to himself in the past. That had all gone out the window, however, the moment he had appeared in the village with R'dek in his arms, and R'dek felt grateful that Rodne seemed to have accepted this small loss of privacy with so little fuss.

R'dek now gave himself a moment to find his own, Rodne-assisted balance, then to find the balance of the spear and thrower. When he was ready, he turned to address the crowd. "You had probably better all stand back some," he said. "I promise that this spear will fly some distance but, given my eyesight, there is no telling in which direction it will fly."

This got a chuckle, and the crowd of hunters did indeed move back to stand well behind him, then R'dek took a deep breath and launched the spear with all his strength. He gave a grunt of pain as his weight fell on his injured leg for a moment. but Rodne pulled him back quickly, then stooped to grab up R'dek's crutch and hand it to him. "Looking good," he said with approval, following the flight with his gaze as R'dek could not.

Unable to track the flight of the spear himself, R'dek turned instead to take in the expressions of those around him, immediately pleased to see similar looks of admiration and astonishment on the faces of the gathered hunters. He grinned in satisfaction, even as he heard one of the hunters mutter, "What witchcraft is this?"

"Oh please," Rodne snorted in disdain. "Is it 'witchcraft' when Hallen brings a netfull of fish into his boat? Or when Li'bet uses her loom to weave a blanket? It's just a new tool -one you haven't seen before."

"And one which you can easily learn to use," R'dek added hastily, shrugging off his pack and extracting the two extra spear throwers he had there. As the hunters gathered around to examine the new devices, the lad who had run to measure and retrieve the spear which R'dek had thrown returned, breathing hard as he announced the distance.

"Three hundred forty paces!" he cried with excitement. "No one has ever thrown a spear so far!"

"Perhaps," R'dek said with a smile, handing one of the throwers over to Loren who had his spear back now, "but I think that in a moment someone is going to throw it even farther, yes?"

"Perhaps," Loren mimicked playfully, experimenting with his grip on the spear and thrower. R'dek hobbled over to his side, giving him a few pointers, and after a little bit, Loren hazarded his first throw. The cast wasn't perfect, this would take a little practice, R'dek knew, but the spear flew straight and some distance, already noticeably farther than his first, unassisted throw.

"No witchcraft at all," he confirmed with satisfaction. "It's as though I'm throwing the spear with an arm grown to half again its length. A fantastic invention, toolmaker," Loren said, turning to R'dek. "And I thank you for it."

"Do not thank me," R'dek said with a worried frown, "until you have repelled the raiders. It will take more than this improvement alone to accomplish that."

"What of the weapon that the stranger, R'non carries?" another of the hunters asked. "If you could make us all such weapons surely we would defeat them easily."

Seeing the look that Rodne was directing at the questioner, R'dek thought to himself that he would have to take his lover aside later and point out to him that it might be better that he not wish death on their own hunters, at least until after they had dealt with the raiders. "While I know of such weapons," R'dek answered calmly, "and I can tell you that the raiders will very likely have similar, though much smaller ones, I have never tried to make one myself. I probably could, given time, but such time we do not have now, yes?"

There was a muttered agreement, if a regretful one, among the hunters at that, and then Loren spoke up again. "Hunters," he said, "this gift is a gift from the Gods, and I accept it with gratitude. Now that they've given us this gift, the Gods are asking us for a little effort and a little faith, and I'm not planning on disappointing them." There was no arguing this point (unless you were Rodne, who was quietly rolling his eyes) and the hunters all made affirming sounds in response.

"Now you kids," Loren now turned to the group of youngsters who had come to watch, "who haven't yet learned the way of the spear, still I know I've seen some of you nail a sparrow in flight with a sling stone, haven't I?" This was answered with a lot of good natured jostling and punching of shoulders.

Loren grinned in approval. "I don't need to tell you that with a slightly larger stone, it's possible to stun or even kill a man," he continued. "This is how, my young friends, you'll be doing your part in the defense of this village. Now, while my hunters and I practice with this new spear-stick thing from R'dek, you guys go and practice your sling skills, and tell the younger ones to gather stones, as many as they can. If every man woman and child of Lakeside takes part in our defense, well that'll show the Gods what we're made of, and the enemy too!"

This got a cheer from the youths and hunters alike, and another eye roll from Rodne. "Come," R'dek said to him, before his impiety could be noticed. "You can help me make spear-sticks, for I think we will need as many as we can make."

****


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lakesiders continues to prepare to defend themselves, and our heroes take an evening to recount tales of the past.

The next few days flew by in a flurry of activity. R'dek carved spear-sticks until his hands ached, and Rodne divided his time between helping him with this task and overseeing the installation of trip lines all around the village. These he had arranged in a complex and labyrinthine manner, in order that the raiders not be able to guess their locations, and R'dek, hobbling around to inspect them with Rodne on one of his afternoon walks, remarked on this with admiration.

"This may well prove their undoing, my friend," he said seriously as they returned to their customary place by the firepit. "You have set them farther back than the barricades, so as to entice them in, and yet there is no entrance into the village proper that is not blocked, and each blockade is set at a different angle. If they try one way and then think that they know how to avoid your traps at a different spot, they will be fooled again. It is quite ingenious, Rodne."

Rodne preened for a moment, and R'dek delighted in seeing him do so. They had all been so serious and worried over the last few days, Rodne no less than anyone else, and it was a pleasure to see him take a small moment of pride and happiness. They'd reached the firepit now and R'dek collapsed (carefully) and with gratitude onto his customary seat, for while his strength was returning, walking with the crutch was more effort than the usual sort, and longer walks still exhausted him.

He looked up after a moment to see Caresn and Loren coming to join them, and they'd brought food and drink, which R'dek now realised was something he was more than ready for. Rodne greeted them, and their gifts, with equal enthusiasm.

"Gods, you're brilliant Caresn," he said, grabbing up a large piece of flat-bread and dried venison. "I was starving, and really, the mind needs nourishment to function, and right now you need this mind functioning at top capacity, yes?" He finished this statement with his mouth full of bread, but he was understood nonetheless, for Loren and Caresn nodded their agreement with indulgent smiles.

"Aye, Rodne," Caresn said with a grin. "You're as indispensable as you always were."

"He was ever indispensable before?" Loren asked, clearly sceptical.

"Well, his arrival, that first time, came at an extremely opportune moment," Caresn said, "just as in the current situation."

"Seems like that was you," Loren countered, "the way I recall it, anyhow."

"Well," Caresn said, "the Gods brought us both to Lakeside at the time we were needed most, for our own purposes."

"This is a tale I do not know," R'dek said, full of curiosity. "But I think I would very much like to hear it, if it may be shared?" He turned to Rodne first, who shrugged but did not immediately reply, his mouth being too full even for him to speak.

"I don't mind telling it," Caresn said, "and it seems a good evening for a tale, though the first part is Rodne's, to be sure."

It was a pleasant late summer evening, and as the warm sunny day was ending a cool breeze was rising, refreshing after their day's labors. The days were getting shorter, as the Day of Balance, when the nights began to be longer than the days, would come in a little over a moon. Loren was squatting by the fireside even now, setting some tinder in place to kindle a fire which R'dek could see would be wanted before too long. A good evening for a tale to be sure, Radek thought.

"You want to hear how I first came to Lakeside?" Rodne asked. "Sure, I can tell that, but R'dek's the only one here who doesn't know it already."

"I've never actually heard you tell of it, Rodne," Caresn answered. "I just know what Li'bet and the others said about it when I first came. I'd be curious to hear how you'd say it."

Rodne shrugged again, paused to take a drink of water from the flask R'dek handed him, and then began.

"Well, you know how I was staying at Kip's little mountain goat-herder's shack, right?" he asked.

R'dek nodded. "That is where you came after you left... the village where you had grown up." R'dek was careful not to mention anything more about that place, as it was a painful memory for Rodne, and one he had not shared with anyone else, he was sure.

"Yeah, well I wandered around and kind of starved for a year first," Rodne said. "And then I came upon Kip and he, you know, took me in for the summer, but then in the fall he went back to his village with his goats, to spend the winter, and I'd kinda had it with people, by and large, so I said I'd stay in his place, up in the mountains." Rodne gave a humorless chuckle here.

"Old Kip might not have been the, ah, brightest pebble in the stream bed," he said, "but he was right when he told me that his little shack wasn't fit for winter habitation. I nearly starved and froze to death that winter, but I made huge improvements to the shack, and learned a lot about trapping, and I actually survived, which is really amazing when I look back on it now." Rodne shook his head at the memory and paused to take a bite of apple.

"It seems weird," he went on when he'd chewed most of it, "that I was actually looking forward to having Kip come back in the spring, which he said he would. I mean, yes, there would be better food, but I really wanted him to see the improvements I'd made in the place, and to see that I actually had survived. I was proud of that."

"Aye, and for good reason, I'd say," Caresn commented.

"Maybe," Rodne replied with a shrug, "but at any rate, he never did. I never found out what happened to him either. A few years later, when I finally made the trip to Lakeside, I passed the remains of a tiny village at the foot of the mountain. I could see that it was in ruins, and I didn't go in... I mean there could have been plague, or who knows, and maybe that wasn't even Kip's village... But I do wonder sometimes, about what happened to him. He helped me a lot, after a fashion, and he left me my first home, but I doubt I'll ever know."

Eyes resting on the shifting light of the fire, R'dek lifted his flask in a silent thanks to Kip the goat-herd, wherever he was, and hoped that the Gods had granted him a kind ending.

"So anyhow," Rodne continued after an introspective moment, "I'd already survived the toughest part of the year, and while I really missed the cheese, I knew I could survive pretty well there without Kip and his goats, so I stayed. I never saw another human being for like, I don't know, maybe five summers, but that was when I really began to notice the stars. It was like... they were there for me in a way that people never had been, and they offered questions and challenges that kept me going. They were the reason I wanted to get up most... well, afternoons, since I stayed up almost every night watching them."

It was a routine Rodne still kept, R'dek knew, having spent two summers with the man now. Though it had seemed a bit odd at first, R'dek had long grown used to Rodne slipping into the bed they shared late at night, and of rising early, as he was accustomed, while Rodne slept late into the afternoon. For two men long used to solitude, it was actually a good arrangement.

"It seems strange now," Rodne mused, "how sure I was that I would be content to spend the rest of my life like that, never seeing another human being again. I even remember imagining how I was going to grow old and die in that bed, but eventually... I don't know, I think maybe I was just too naturally curious to stay in one place my whole life. Apparently even the mysteries of the stars weren't enough for my brilliant mind." Rodne gave a little smirk at that, but privately, R'dek thought that he was probably right.

"I think perhaps your brilliant mind was even wiser than you realized," R'dek suggested, "for it knew that you needed something more, like the number marks, to truly divine their mysteries."

"Possibly," Rodne replied with a shrug, "but at any rate, one Spring I suddenly realized that I had to move on. I wasn't sure that I wanted to see people again, though I was definitely missing Kip's goat cheese, and I knew I needed to find people -with goats- to get that... and maybe I thought I'd find out what happened to Kip. I can't say what it was, really, but that Spring I packed up everything I thought I would need to travel, which wasn't much, and put everything else away... and just left. Probably nothing left of the place now... not that I could ever find it again anyhow..." 

Rodne drifted off thoughtfully, and R'dek wondered how long it had been since Rodne had thought of those days, and that place. For himself, R'dek had never spent more than two summers anyplace after he'd left his old village, and could not imagine what it would have been like to have had a home as Rodne had, those five summers. "So you came to Lakeside straight after that?" R'dek asked.

"Mmm... not so straight, I'm sure," Rodne said. "I kind of wandered all over, and I actually avoided a lot of villages and places where I saw people. By late summer I'd come down out of the mountains, though, and found myself following one of the rivers that leads to the lake here. I avoided the people I saw here too, at first, but it was well into Fall then and the nights were starting to get cold... and then I saw that there were goats here so I though, what the hell." Rodne shrugged again, smiling a little sheepishly at the simplistic rational that had finally brought him to this place.

R'dek imagined Rodne wandering into the village as Teleya and R'non had, alone and unknown and unused to human interaction for over five summers, and wondered how he had seemed to the residents at the time. "Who came to meet you then?" R'dek asked.

"I was the one that spotted him first," Loren said with a fond chuckle, "and went running into the village to tell everyone that there was a crazy looking man wandering into town."

"Well I don't remember you," Rodne snipped, "but Li'bet was there. She did seem a little... awkward, though I don't know if that was because she thought I was crazy or because she didn't quite know what to do with me."

"She was only six moons without her man, Ca'dell, back then," Loren pointed out. "And still finding her way as Headwoman. You were probably the first stranger to Lakeside she'd had to meet as Headwoman."

"And quite the figure you appeared, no doubt," Caresn smiled.

"Yes, okay, I probably looked like a nut, possibly even a dangerous nut," Rodne conceded. "And I probably acted pretty weird too, because I had to really think for a second before I could remember how to talk, or what to say at first, but it is to her credit," he continued, "that she didn't just send me away with the likes of Loren and his young friends at my heels."

"She was wise in her ways, even then," Loren said admiringly.

"True enough," Rodne agreed. "She even knew not to send me to stay in the bachelor's lodge, because I'd have run screaming after about two minutes in there."

"Yeah, you were pretty twitchy in those days, I recall," Loren commented.

"Hello!" Rodne snarked. "Five summers in complete isolation. How was I not supposed to be 'twitchy'? And also? They let their _dogs_ stay in there with them."

"Just saying," Loren let the snark pass without batting an eye. "None of us had ever met a hermit before, so we had no idea what to expect."

"Where did you stay, Rodne, if you couldn't stay in the bachelor's lodge?" R'dek asked.

"First few nights I set up a little camp right there," Rodne pointed to the large wingseed tree that stood a couple dozen paces from the firepit. "Then after that Li'bet set me up with K'harien, the old basket maker, and I stayed with her from then on."

"Now that was a stroke of genius," Loren said, "and really, that was one of the first things that Li'bet did that showed all of us that she definitely had the wisdom to be a good Headwoman."

"And what was so brilliant about it?" R'dek asked, curiously.

"Old K'harien was an incredible basket maker," Loren answered. "In truth, I've never seen the like since, but Gods Above, that woman was as mean as a snake. No one liked her and she didn't like anyone else, but her eyes were starting to go bad, and she really needed help gathering the materials she needed for her baskets, and doing other stuff too. She'd nearly set her hut on fire by accident about a moon before Rodne showed up, and something like that is a danger to the whole village."

"Of course," R'dek said. "That I understand, but you are saying that Li'bet sent Rodne to be her helper?"

"She told me," Rodne explained with a little wounded pride, "that if I stayed with K'harien, helped her find the stuff for her baskets and stopped her from burning the village down, then I could stay in Lakeside _and_ she'd personally see to it that I got a good sized block of goat cheese every moon. It seemed like a pretty fair deal to me."

"But you hadn't met K'harien yet," R'dek clarified, "when you made this agreement?"

"Li'bet told me that she thought K'harian was probably a lot like me," Rodne said, "and she was right, you know. K'harien had her reasons for not liking people, just like I did. We both understood that, even if neither one of us wanted to share our reasons."

"Aye, that's wisdom indeed," Caresn said with an approving nod. "And when I showed up at Lakeside, a few summers later, the two of you seemed to get along well enough. How was it when you first met?"

"Oh man," Loren said with a laugh. "They fought like two cats in a bag. Woke the whole village up just before dawn the first morning Rodne stayed with her, screeching at each other at the tops of their lungs. I have no idea what you were arguing about, 'cause all I could hear was the names you were calling each other."

"Well, neither one of us was exactly used to having other people around, you know," Rodne said a little defensively, then his expression softened in recollection. "I don't remember what that fight was about either," he said after a moment, "but I remember some of the things I called her." He shook his head in chagrin. "Eventually, we came to an... understanding."

"Eventually," Loren said, smiling. "But you definitely gave the whole village something to talk about for moons, until you did."

"I'm glad we were able to supply you all with a source of entertainment," Rodne groused. "Clearly you were desperately in need of it."

"Well you hadn't learned to be a story teller yet," Loren said, placating a bit, "so what else did we have?"

"Well, there was that one traveling story teller that came through town the following summer," Rodne pointed out.

"Oh, yeah, _that_ guy," Loren shook his head. "He told the strangest damned stories, about giant villages bigger than a hundred like ours, that could fly into the air or sink into the sea. I mean, I like to hear stories with some magic or miracles in them, but no one could believe these stories, they were so crazy."

"But he wasn't," Rodne said quietly. "He was the man who taught me about the number marks, R'dek. He stayed in town long enough to teach me how they worked, telling stories that no one believed at night and talking to me in the day. He was the first person I ever told about what I had learned from the stars, and he... it almost seemed like it was all stuff he knew already, but he seemed excited about what I was learning too." Rodne fell to gazing into the fire for a moment, and R'dek gazed at him in turn, loving how the firelight shone in his eyes, and the intensity of his inward turned thoughts.

"Until I met you, R'dek," Rodne's gaze was redirected now, his expression showing something deeper than affection, "I'd never met anyone else who seemed to understand why I've been so captivated by the stars all my life. I was actually tempted to believe in the Gods after I met that traveler... just like I was after I met you." Rodne ducked his head then suddenly, letting R'dek glimpse a flash of one of Rodne's rare, lopsided smiles.

R'dek also spotted an understanding grin pass between Caresn and Loren, and knew he was among more than friends -something like family perhaps. Knowing that, he felt comfortable wrapping an arm around Rodne's waste to pull him close and kiss his cheek and Rodne raised his head to invite another on his lips. When they had parted R'dek noticed that Loren and Caresn had moved to sit closer to one another too.

"So this is about where your part in the story starts, isn't it?" Loren asked, speaking softly because his lips were nearly caressing Caresn's ear.

"Aye, I suppose," he answered, settling himself in the hunter's embrace. "K'harian said that she'd had Rodne helping her out for four summers or so when I came that autumn, about the time her health began to really fail."

"Yeah, she started to get the pains in her fingers and wrists the first winter I was with her," Rodne said. "It went away most of the summer, at first, but then it started to bother her when it rained, when there was a wind from the north, and then some days for no reason we could figure. It just got worse and worse over time."

Though Rodne had never spoken of her before, it now became clear to R'dek that Rodne had really cared for the old woman, in his way... possibly the only way she would have let anyone care for her, R'dek considered.

"Aye, it's a common enough affliction in elders," Caresn replied, "and sometimes it can be quite cruel, though there are a few treatments I knew, and I used quite a few with her." Caresn glanced over to the large, spreading wingseed tree now, his gaze reflective. "I had my own tent set up under yon tree for a few moons, but soon enough I could see I was needed closer to poor old K'harien, so we were all in her hut for a time, she and I and Rodne."

"It was all winter," Rodne supplied. "And I assume you can see now why I was motivated to move to a cave two days walk from the village that spring."

Radek gave a small huff of a laugh. "Aye, but you didn't go all at once," Caresn commented. "You were in and out a lot that summer, helping me with K'harien and getting the things you needed to make your new home. And when she caught the fever that was going around, you stayed with her that whole time."

"I remember that," Loren said. "It got me too, but good. And I think that was the first time I really got to know you, Caresn." Loren's smile was fond and got an answering one from Caresn.

"Caresn got to meet a lot of people in Lakeside when the fever went around that summer," Rodne said. "It was a nasty one, and honestly, I'm a little surprised that K'harien survived it, but she was too tough and mean to die yet, I suppose."

"And she had you caring for her," Caresn said kindly. "That made a world of difference, I know."

"Yeah, well, she started thinking I was one of her dead sons," Rodne said uncomfortably, "and I think she was half convinced that you were the other one. Honestly, I don't think her mind ever really recovered from that fever... and I really couldn't stick around after that."

"Aye, she did often call me 'Ryken' towards the end there," Caresn confirmed, "and she sometimes asked for Temmon when I know she was speaking of you, but I never knew her really, before she started to wander, as it were, so it was easier for me to be with her."

"It's good she had someone," Rodne said quietly. "I always felt a little... sorry, that I left her the way I did."

"You were there for her when she needed you, lad," Caresn assured. "And later it was me that she needed more, so I was there. Also, Rodne, if you'd stayed you'd be the one who inherited her hut, and then you'd be stuck living in Lakeside all this time." Caresn's smile spoke volumes about forgiveness and the rightness of things as they had come about, and R'dek felt Rodne relax beside him.

"Right," Rodne said with a mock shudder, "so that's two huge debts I owe you, Caresn."

"Och, you don't owe me a thing, lad," Caresn said. "Turtur sent me to Lakeside to find just what I found, and to do just what I did. He said there'd be a place for me there, good friends and a good life, and he was right, as he always is."

"Ah... huh," Rodne said, awkward as he always was when Caresn spoke of his spirit guide. To R'dek it was no more troubling than if the man was speaking of his tools or herbs. They were simply the techniques of the healer's art, no different from his own antler chippers or knapping tools. R'dek wasn't sure why it bothered Rodne so much, but he'd learned patience. Likely he'd know the truth eventually.

"And you have been in that cave," R'dek asked, "what, twelve summers now?"

"Yeah," Rodne said, mentally counting back. "The first couple of summers after K'harien died I hardly came down at all. It was just hard to be there with her gone, you know? And I really didn't mind not seeing people for moons at a time."

"So who was it finally started going up to your place for 'consultations'," Caresn asked, "and eventually convinced everyone that you were some kind of 'holy man'?"

"Oh gods, that was Trinka," Loren said with a groan. "Crazy Trinka. She was convinced you could really tell the future, and all kinds of other stuff too, but then she told everyone that she did just what you told her to and that was how she got her man -and nobody believed that she'd ever get herself a man- and it looked like maybe she had a point."

"Trinka!" Rodne shuddered. "That woman was insane. She would not leave me alone... Though, come to think of it, I haven't seen her in quite a few summers. What ever became of her?"

"She's got knee troubles, so she can't make the trip any more," Caresn said with a laugh, "but she's got five grandchildren too, and I understand she's senior-most of the bakers now, and rules the others quite strictly."

"Yeah," Loren confirmed. "Kimma tells me that all the flour grinding must be done during a waning moon, and new flour added to the leavening only on the waxing... all kinds of crazy stuff like that."

"And yet ye've no complaints with the bread these days, luv?" Caresn said playfully, letting his hand play over Loren's torso.

"Which proves nothing...!" Rodne began, until R'dek short circuited his imminent rant by slipping a hand under his tunic.

"Perhaps we should let Caresn and Loren have the hut to themselves tonight," R'dek whispered to Rodne while letting his lips just barely caress Rodne's ear. "And you can show me how nice a spot it is under the wingseed tree?"

"We'll, um, want to get a few hides or something," Rodne said, his voice suddenly a little unsteady. "'Cause it can get, you know, a little cold at night... this time of year..." R'dek grinned at how easily he was able to derail Rodne's babble, just by biting his ear gently.

"Go and get whatever you need, lads," Caresn called happily. "And thank you, ever so much."

****


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sex!

R'dek elected to start on his way to the indicated tree now and send Rodne to bring as much bedding as he could carry. "And the flask!" R'dek called as an afterthought as Rodne scrambled to gather what they'd need.

"Perhaps you'd like me to bring the whole bed?" Rodne quipped when he eventually caught up with R'dek and handed him the flask of lightning water. "The fire might be nice too, yes?"

"It would be, yes," R'dek admitted, pausing to take a long swallow of the liquor, "but it would take too long, and I am feeling a little impatient."

"Impatient, eh?" Rodney flashed a lustful grin as he strode ahead of R'dek to throw the bedding down onto the thick grasses and dried leaves at the foot of the tree.

"What do you expect?" R'dek groused, gesturing with the flask which Rodne finally took off his hands. "It has been days and days since I last knew any release, even from my own hand, whereas you," he pointed accusingly, "I know for a fact, have been sneaking off..."

"Hey, I am only human," Rodne didn't even bother to deny it, R'dek noted with humor. "And I was thinking of you."

"And what," R'dek asked, sitting slowly and carefully on one of the hides Rodne had spread, "were you thinking about me?"

"Mmm..." Rodne said, helping R'dek down and then coming to sit beside him, wrapping them both in R'dek's new rabbit fur blanket. "Mostly," he answered finally, "I was thinking about the first time I sucked you."

"Indeed?" R'dek queried, wriggling out of his tunic while at the same time snuggling close to Rodne, which was no small feat. "What do you remember?"

"Oh gods, everything," Rodne answered, though to be honest, R'dek reflected, he might also be rhapsodising about his now exposed torso, which Rodne was caressing with both fingers and lips. "I mean, I remember being a little nervous to start, but then the first time I actually tasted you, felt your cock on my tongue..." Rodne shivered a little and then reached up for a kiss, which R'dek could hardly deny him, for all that it complicated his attempt to remove Rodne's garment.

"Skin so soft..." Rodne carried on when their kiss had ended and Rodne proceeded to nibble and kiss his way along R'dek's jaw and down his neck. "Cock so hard..." It was hard to tell whether Rodne was still reminiscing or commenting on his current explorations, as his hand was now cupped over R'dek's crotch, and his cock was indeed very hard.

"As soon as I tasted it, I wanted it," Rodne was saying now. "I can't explain it. I wanted to take as much as I could... I wanted to fill my mouth and throat with it..."

R'dek groaned and arched in anticipation. "Please tell me that is what you are having in mind right now," he begged, entirely without pride.

"Oh hell yes," said Rodne, unfastening R'dek's loincloth and moving his mouth lower still, to the hollow bellow his hips.

"Please, please, Rodne," R'dek begged, moaning with need.

"Some people don't, I guess..." Rodne mused philosophically as he nuzzled the dark curls of hair at the base of R'dek's cock, "but I liked the taste of you from the very start. Don't think I'll ever get enough..." As if to prove his point, Rodne now licked the first few drops of precum from the head of R'dek's cock, and R'dek gave a loud, if inarticulate, cry.

"Oh yeah..." Rodne said in delight, and then took the whole of R'dek's cock in his mouth with evident relish.

"Gods! Rodne!" Radek cried aloud, and Rodne hummed in delight.

***

Caresn laughed to hear R'dek's voice lifted loudly in obvious pleasure. "Now that's lovely to hear," he said as he lay back on his bed, comfortably naked on the furs there.

"Why's that?" Loren asked with a raised eyebrow as he divested himself of his tunic, leggings and loincloth.

"He's had a hard time of it," Caresn said, "and hearing that he's able to enjoy himself so, that's a sure sign that he's well on his way to being truly healed, in body and mind. Also," Caresn rolled to take in the vision of his beautiful lover standing naked in the lamplight of his hut, "it's a healthy thing for a man or woman, to take such pleasures as often as they can."

"Well then," Loren said, climbing over Caresn to sit astride him. "I'm all in favor of a healthy lifestyle. How do you think we should address that, healer?"

"I suggest a judicious application of this critical ingredient," Caresn said, holding up the pot of goose fat. "But I'm happy to take your suggestions on where it should be applied."

"How about... everywhere," Loren finished by whispering the last word into Carson's ear just before he moved across to take Carson in a hungry kiss. Carson happily let Loren ravish his mouth as he remembered how he had decided, on a whim, to enter the wrestling contest in the mid-summer games this year. All the wrestlers had covered themselves in some kind of oil or fat to make themselves harder to grab hold of, so Carson had done the same.

He'd done surprisingly well in the contest, and was among the last four competitors, when he drew a match with Loren. The two men had stared at each other, all but naked and their bodies glistening with oil in the mid-summer sun, and Carson realized that if the two if them actually started to wrestle they'd be ripping their loin-clothes off and fucking each other's brains out in front of half the village in no time. Caresn had elected to forfeit.

The memory alone could still make him hard, and now, with Loren sitting astride him, his balls brushing over Caresn's cock, Caresn felt as hard as a rock. He handed over the jar of goose fat when Loren gestured for it, and Caresn supposed that he'd probably lie still for it, even if Loren did choose to cover him entirely in goose fat, though he would likely ask him to move the nicer furs away first. Loren did not do this, however, but instead put a tiny dab on each of Caresn's nipples, which he then stopped to play with for a while.

Caresn sighed with pleasure, running his hands over Loren's perfect, firmly muscled thighs and enjoying immensely the sensation of being pinned at the waist by Loren's solid weight while Loren's fingers on his nipples made him want to writhe and arch his back. Although Caresn had not had so many lovers, he still found Loren to be rather unique, in that he definitely preferred to take a dominant role in sex, but also clearly liked to be on the receiving end of Caresn's cock. Caresn had no complaints about any part of this, and it appeared as though Loren was looking for more of the same this evening, for he was already slicking up Caresn's cock with generous quantities of goose fat.

Caresn moaned with pleasure and helplessly tried to thrust his hips against Loren's weight, but he was well and truly pinned. Loren chuckled at his predicament and pinched one of Caresn's nipples, hard.

"Don't move," he said now, his voice rough with arousal and almost dangerous sounding. He knelt up then, reaching behind himself with fingers full of more goose fat, preparing himself for Caresn's cock. Sometimes he let Caresn do this, but Loren seemed to prefer to retain control even here. Caresn, for his part, loved to watch Loren's face go soft with pleasure as he pressed his fingers into himself, making himself slick and open for Caresn's cock.

"Stay still," he said, moving forward a bit to position himself, and though it was no easy thing, Caresn complied. His reward would come soon enough. It came now, as Loren lowered his body with perfect control, impaling himself slowly, slowly, onto Caresn's cock. Caresn whimpered, holding himself as still as he could as he was gradually enclosed in Loren's warm, slick tightness.

"Gods..." Loren gasped. "Gods you feel so good."

"Ah love..." groaned Caresn, panting to hold himself still. "So beautiful, so strong..." And so fantastic around his cock. Then Loren moved, kneeling up a bit and then sinking back down, even farther than before, taking Caresn even deeper, and Caresn cried out in desire -wondering, as he heard his own lifted voice, if it might carry to the two lovers lying beneath the wingseed tree.

 

***

"It's no skin off my nose if you wake half the village," Rodne said, lifting his head away from R'dek's cock, "but if you insist on yelling my name they may not think kindly of either one of us in the morning."

"Gods, gods..." R'dek was murmuring, panting slightly. "It really has been too long. But I have... I think, an idea..."

"Well now there's a noteworthy event," Rodne said with a grin.

"Quiet, you," R'dek muttered, maneuvering himself to lay with his head at Rodne's groin. "This is idea to prevent us from waking whole village. You can see how it works, yes?"

"Alright... okay," Rodne's voice faltered a bit as he felt R'dek's warm breath on his cock. "I can see where this idea could have it's... merits..." Then there was R'dek's cock within easy reach of his own lips and tongue once more and Rodne opened his mouth to take it in, just as R'dek was taking Rodne into his. Rodne gave a heartfelt, if muffled, cry and grasped R'dek's hips with bruising strength.

For a moment Rodne could forget about everything except how good it felt to have R'dek's warm, wet mouth around his cock, and how good R'dek's cock felt in his own mouth, hot and hard and real, solid proof that R'dek was here, alive and all his. He opened his throat to take it as deep as he could, as he had learned to do fairly well by now, and was rewarded by the sensation of R'dek's own muffled groan of pleasure. It was more than he was able to manage, to prevent his hips from thrusting, from fucking R'dek's mouth, but then he felt R'dek's hands on his hips, restraining him with the wiry strength he knew so well.

Only a handful of days ago, it seemed, so much of that strength had fled from his lover, and to feel it returned now was almost as much of a turn-on as the sensation of R'dek's tongue lapping at the head of his cock, as he was doing now. Immersing himself in his task, even as he also immersed himself in the sensations he was feeling, Rodne strove to set a regular rhythm to his sucking, moving his head up and down the length of R'dek's cock at a steady pace.

He could feel R'dek attempting to match his rhythm, but from the way R'dek's fingers were clutching at his hips, and from the high, whimpering noises Rodne could hear him making around his cock, Rodne suspected that R'dek was too close to completion to manage anything so coordinated. Thinking to put the man out of his misery, Rodne took R'dek's cock as deeply down his throat as he possibly could, and then tried swallowing around it. It was a technique he had not yet mastered, but perfection was not required in this case.

Almost instantly, R'dek was pushing Rodne's hips back forcefully, giving a huge gasp followed by a choked cry, and then Rodne was tasting the salty spurts of R'dek's release, feeling his whole body jerk rhythmically with the force of his climax. Rodne sucked him dry, licked him clean and then withdrew, soothing him with calming caresses as he recovered.

"Take your time," Rodne said softly. "Don't rush yourself."

"I know," R'dek said, voice still a little breathy. "But I want you... very much."

Rodne gave a little huff of a laugh, then his eyes fell on the half healed line of scar and scab running the length of his lover's thigh. He ran his fingers along it, carefully. "I'm really glad you're alive, R'dek," he said.

"I am very glad of it too," R'dek said. "And I would like to now show you just how glad." And then Rodne felt the wet, delicious warmth of R'dek's mouth on his cock once again...

***

The slick, tight heat surrounding him was Caresn's whole universe for a moment, driving every other thought out of his head, and then there was motion, up and down on his cock. He groaned again, loudly as Loren got into a regular rhythm, settling down to take Caresn deep into himself, and then pushing up, drawing him out. Though he rhythm remained regular, Caresn could hear Loren's breaths gradually grow harsher, until he began to let little cries escape.

If it took a little effort at that point to focus his vision, it was well worth it, Caresn mused as he took in the sight of his lover, head bowed and lolling slightly as he rose and fell on Caresn's cock. His eyes were half closed, his wide mouth slightly agape in a blissful smile. Loren's hands hung loose at his sides now and Caresn reached up to take them both, feeling Loren clutch at him in desire.

With his right hand and Loren's left, Caresn reached across to take hold of Loren's cock, encouraging him to do the same. Soon, their fingers intertwined as they pumped Loren's cock together, in the same deliberate rhythm with which he was fucking Caresn. Loren's right hand left his for a moment then, and returned with the pot of goose fat, spreading a generous quantity on his cock and their hands. Loren's little cries soon became loud ones, and his rhythm began to falter.

Loren was moving faster now, and his control was slipping, allowing Caresn to thrust his hips up a little. Caresn tried to match Loren's rhythm, but it was no longer quite so even, and Caresn found himself overtaken by his own rhythm, helpless to follow any other urge. For a brief spell their two bodies moved, out of synch with each other, their hands working with desperate speed on Loren's cock, and then Loren threw his head back, choking out Caresn's name, and came.

 

***

"R'dek... Gods..." Rodne called out his lover's name before he could remember that he'd warned R'dek to be quiet only a little while earlier. R'dek, happily, seemed to be having too much fun sucking Rodne's cock to reprimand him, and so Rodne just turned his face into R'dek's rabbit fur blanket moaned with purest pleasure. He nearly inhaled half a lungfull of rabbit fur when R'dek slipped a finger into him and he gasped at the sensation, and then R'dek began to finger fuck him with slow, deliberate thrusts.

It rendered Rodne into a quivering wreck in no time, and before long he was whimpering and writhing in the furs, begging R'dek to finish him, even as he knew that his pleas would fall on deaf ears. R'dek got it into his mind, from time to time, to bring Rodne to the edge and keep him there for what seemed forever. Rodne could tell that this was one of those times, and all he was going to be able to do would be to hang on for the duration of the ride.

R'dek's warm mouth continued to work his cock, his clever fingers moving in and out of his ass, and Rodne let the pleasure of these sensations wash over him. His thougts drifted, taking in the accompanying gentle caress of the late summer breeze on his naked skin, the calling of a night bird coming in counterpoint to his own nearly animal cries. He wanted to move, to fuck R'dek's face and fingers, but R'dek held him transfixed with one hand grasping his hip and his mouth on his cock.

It was only when Rodne finally stopped begging, because R'dek had finally driven every last word from Rodne's head, that R'dek at last curled his fingers to caress that special place deep inside Rodne. Caught completely unawares, Rodne shuddered all over and let out long, wordless cry, and then came... and came, and came. He was gasping and nearly sobbing with the force of it when the wave of ecstasy eventually crested and then moved on, leaving Rodne laying boneless and sated on the furs like some piece of flotsom cast up on a riverbank.

He was only vaguely aware of R'dek releasing his cock and slipping his fingers free, and only slightly more aware of his lover realigning himself to lay with his head near Rodne's. It was when he felt R'dek's lips brushing his own that Rodne seemed to come to himself again, unable to leave R'dek's kiss unanswered. He tasted himself in R'dek's mouth, which fired his banked ardor further, and pulled his lover into a warm embrace.

"Alive..." Rodne murmured into R'dek's throat as he kissed his way across his lover's face. "Alive, alive, alive alive..."

"And tired," R'dek added, kissing the top of Rodne's head. "You are also ready to sleep now, I hope?"

"Mphlgm..." Rodne affirmed, snugging R'dek closer still and pulling the furs over them both. He loosened his hold on his lover enough for him to roll over and curl his back into Rodne's chest, so that they fit, spooned together, and R'dek took one of Rodne's hands and raised it to his lips. "Good night my love, and sleep well," Rodne heard him whisper, even as he heard another muffled cry of passion penetrate the peaceful silence surrounding them -Caresn's voice, perhaps.

That's nice, Rodne thought contentedly as he drifted off. Caresn deserves a night of pleasure, he reflected and, filled with post-coital generosity, wished the same to everyone in Lakeside. Basking in these kindly thoughts Rodne tumbled, at last, into sleep, curled around his lover beneath the spreading wingseed tree.

***

Hearing Loren's voice raised in pleasure, feeling the warmth of his spending spatter over his chest and belly, and feeling Loren's whole body clench and spasm around his own, Caresn thrust up, powerfully, into Loren's shuddering body, once, twice, and then came himself. Caresn couldn't stop the shout that seemed to leap straight from his heart, full of joy and pleasure and desire. He knew it was loud -probably loud enough to be heard well beyond the confines of his hut, but he didn't care.

Loren was bending to kiss him now and Caresn slipped free, shuddering a little at the sensation of his cock moving from Loren's body one last time. Caresn kissed his lover back with passion, wrapping his arms around him and hauling him down to lie in the sticky mess on his belly. Caresn didn't care about that either. Nor, it seemed, did Loren, who lay, draped over Caresn, and kissed him and kissed him and kissed him, until Caresn began to seriously miss breathing, and then Loren slid off to his side so that he could.

"Beautiful man," Caresn murmured softly a little later as he caressed the planes of his lover's handsome face. "I think I might love you. Is that alright?"

Loren's smile was sated, sleepy, but his eyes were lit by a spark that shone straight from his heart. "It better be," he said, voice soft with affection, "since I'm pretty sure I love you."

Caresn pulled him into a tight embrace at this, holding the solid mass of his lover close, so close, and feeling his heartbeat and Loren's sound against one another. He and Lakeside's leader of the hunt had been slowly been spending more and more time together, growing closer and closer, for many years, but they'd never before spoken of such things. Perhaps it was seeing how it was between Rodne and R'dek, perhaps it was the coming of the raiders, but it now seemed easy to recognise how they were no longer merely two good friends who enjoyed the occasional fuck.

Though nothing could have made Caresn's heart gladder than to hear Loren confirm that he had come to the same conclusion, he was also prone to worry, and this new truth came with a host of worries. Loren seemed to sense this too, and pulled back just a little to gaze into Caresn's eyes. "Don't tell me you're worrying again?" he asked.

"Aye, of course," Caresn admitted with a self-effacing smile. "Is it all right... do others give you any trouble for spending so much time with me, with a backwards man? I know people will say it's fine for a healer, but for a hunter, for the leader of the hunt?"

Loren gave Caresn the special smile he kept for dispelling Caresn's worries and lifted his hand to run through Caresn's dark hair. "Do you know what I tell hunters who ask why I spend so much time with you?" he asked, a little mischeviously.

"What do you tell them, love?" Caresn asked.

"I tell them it's good hunting magic," he said, matter-of-factly, "because in the hunt I thrust my spear into the animals we hunt to eat, and then afterwards, to appease their spirits, I come to you -our shamen, and let you thrust your spear into me."

"You do not!" Caresn laughed, worries completely dispelled, just as Loren had intended.

"I do so!" protested Loren, defending himself as Caresn smacked him in the face with a corner of one of the furs they were lying on. "And it makes perfect sense to most of them. No one will say anything more about it either, because they're afraid of messing up the magic."

"You're a terrible liar, you are," Caresn chuckled.

"Hey, who's to say it's not true," Loren objected. "Since I am the best hunter in Lakeside."

"Aye, and I'm the luckiest backwards man that ever lived," Caresn said contentedly, pulling the furs up and settling in to sleep. Loren only kissed him again for an answer, and settled in beside him, sound asleep in the blink of an eye. Comfortable and content as he'd ever been, Caresn followed him only moments later.

****


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions mount as the villagers prepare for the imminent arrival of the dreaded raiders.

The raiders had most certainly sent scouts to inspect Lakeside and it's defences, but the Lakesiders had done the same, and learned much. They could learn more still, Teleya suggested, by speculating as to what the raiders' scouts would have seen and the conclusions they might draw from it.

"They will surely have seen the 'cattle barricades'," Teleya pointed out at a meeting of elders one afternoon after it had been determined that the raiders were likely to come in the next day or so.

"They will have seen that they were not completed," she continued, "and this fact may have even motivated them to attack sooner than they might have otherwise."

"That sounds like a bad thing," Li'bet remarked.

"Not necessarily," Teleya explained. "It means that they will most likely come in fewer numbers, as more of their men are still required to hold the last village they took. To attack now means that they must spread their forces more thinly."

"Okay, that makes sense." Li'bet did look reassured, Rodne thought to himself, and she definitely wasn't stupid. After all the time he and R'dek had spent with them, Rodne had come to the conclusion that Teleya and R'non most certainly knew what they were doing, and that they were trustworthy. It was comforting to see that Li'bet had apparently come to the same conclusion.

"Another advantage for us, I believe," Teleya said, "is that the raiders are likely to suspect nothing of our hidden obstructions, thinking that we have spent all our efforts on the unfinished cattle barricade. They will likely be more confident and less cautious when approaching."

"Meaning that they're more likely to head right into our trip-lines at full speed, yes?" Loren remarked. "Then that's definitely a plus. If we position the sling-stone throwers in the tall grass near those places, we can bring down a lot of them in the first charge."

Rodne agreed, though he was trying not to think about how most of the sling-stone throwers would be those too old or young to be among the hunters... and R'dek, who had adamantly insisted upon taking a role in the actual fight. He himself would be organizing the small group of those he'd deemed the best knotters, who would be repairing the trip lines as the raiders' horses stumbled into them. More than a few, Rodne assumed, would give way even as they served their purpose, and it would not do for them to leave a clear entrance into the village on a second approach. He and his crew would be tasked with finding and repairing the damaged lines as the riders fell upon them, in the heat of battle. He was more than a little nervous about that, but understood perhaps better than anyone else how vital the task was.

"I agree," Teleya answered Loren. "If we divide those with slings into five groups, to cover the five largest openings, there will be enough to leave those openings quite well defended. How many have you now that can manage your new spear sticks?" she asked.

"We have ten that have mastered it, including myself," Loren said, "and another four or five that have nearly done. I figured we'd find ourselves some good spots behind the barricades, since we have the distance, and they will provide some cover from the arrows the enemy will be firing."

"They will," R'non confirmed, "but if the raiders spot where you're hiding they'll concentrate their fire there and they'll eventually get through, so you should probably plan to move around a lot too."

"I figured as much," Loren replied, nodding over at Sitakhus, who stood to his left, making sure that he took this advice to heart too. The hunter nodded in return, then looked out across the circle at Teleya and R'non, and at Li'bet.

"Can I ask," he began a little hesitantly, as he was here not as an elder but as Loren's right hand man, "if we've made any plan to keep the women and youngest children safe? I know we'll be doing our best to keep the raiders out of the village, but if the women and children remain scattered around in different huts they'll be too easy to grab while we're busy elsewhere, and if they all stay together in one place then they'll just make a more tempting target."

Of course, Rodne reflected, Sitikahus had a new, young mate, who was currently carrying his child. Naturally he was worried, and likely not the only one of the hunters with similar concerns. This could be serious, Rodne thought, for if the hunters were too distracted with worry for their families, then they would not be at their most effective in defending the village, and neither Teleya nor R'non looked as though they had an answer.

"I may have an idea about that," said Li'bet, unexpectedly. All eyes turned instantly to her.

"I believe that there is a place we can hide our most vulnerable people," she said, "where they could be seen, but not touched, even by the arrows from R'non's bow." She pointed now, a dramatic gesture, towards the wide lake to their east, calm now as it generally was in the summer, with the great cluster of fishing boats on the near shore. Rodne saw what she meant immediately, and saw the genius in it too. He'd always thought her to be a good and wise leader, and if any in the village had doubted it before, this should end those doubts.

"I was originally thinking about how we could keep our boats safe," she explained. "For it seemed likely that the raiders might try to burn them, and when I thought about how it might be achieved that they could all be moved out of harm's way, it occurred to me that anyone on those boats would be safe too... in the middle of the lake."

"Of course!" Teleya's face broke into a broad smile. "Headwoman, that is a truly ingenious idea," she exclaimed. "For the raiders will be unable to reach them, yet they will still be able to see them, and this will infuriate them all the more."

"And we want these raiders to be even more furious with us than they already are?" came Kvena'ah's acerbic question.

"A fighter whose mind is clouded with anger is a distracted fighter," R'non answered calmly enough. "And easy to defeat. Any raider who spends any time standing on the lakeshore shouting threats at your women will be an easy target."

"I will go now and carry this excellent idea to the womenfolk and crafters," said Zuszka, Lakeside's best potter and eldermost of the crafters. "We can quickly prepare the boats to carry foodstuffs and some slingstones too. Any raider who thinks that he will find us only frightened and helpless should he try to swim to us, will be most unpleasantly surprised."

A dry chuckle went around the circle of those gathered, for all knew that many of the women of Lakeside were deadly shots with a sling. Some of those women not yet with children to care for would be among those hiding in the tall grass near the trip lines, but now those men with children, or with sisters who had children, or elder parents, would have one less thing to worry about. Rodne felt the resolve in those around him become firm, determined. It was something he had never felt from the citizens of Lakeside before, for the village had never before known war, and Rodne was both comforted and troubled to feel it.

At his side, R'dek worked almost obsessively now making new spearpoints, and every one he finished found a hunter waiting for it, with a spearshaft ready for it's deadly component. In the days since his highly successful spear-stick demonstration, R'dek's mood had grown gradually yet progressively darker, his brow furrowed in grim determination nearly all the time now. It was revenge that was on his mind, Rodne feared, and he thought of R'non's words from a moment ago. If R'dek's mind was clouded by thoughts of vengeance, he too might make mistakes, or put himself into danger. Rodne resolved to stick close to his lover throughout the fight, though it might make fulfilling his other duties more difficult.

"Has anyone else any questions about what they will be doing when the raiders come?" Li'bet was asking now. She was answered only with thoughtful head shaking.

"You have organized a fine defence for your village," Teleya said with admiration a moment later. "Though the position of this settlement has provided many challenges, I believe your plans will overcome them. R'non and I have fought with many villages against the raiders, sometimes successfully, and sometimes not so successfully, and my experience tells me that your fight will be successful. Your plans are most ingenious, your people cooperative and brave, and your determination unparallelled. It will be a pleasure and an honor to fight beside you."

This encouraging speech was answered with a hearty cheer from the hunters and a few others, and the meeting broke up with encouraging words and muttered plans. Rodne looked over to R'dek again, to see that his demeanor had not changed in the least. "You, um, want to go and join Caresn for some lunch?" Rodne suggested. "I think he could use the company."

R'dek only shook his head, flaking away another bit of the spearpoint he was working on. "Am not hungry," he said, "but you should go."

"R'dek..." Rodne laid a hand on the toolmaker's lean shoulder, not bothering to keep the worry from his voice. "You're still healing, and you need to be resting and eating more. You could get sick again, Caresn says so too. Please...?"

R'dek's expression, as he looked sharply over his shoulder at Rodne, was annoyed at first -the way he looked when one of the children was bothering him overmuch- but gaze softened when he saw the undisguised concern on Rodne's face. "Very well," he said after a moment. "You may... have a point, and at least we can give Caresn one less thing to worry about."

Glancing about, Rodne saw that there was no one nearby to see them, and leaned over to give R'dek a kiss on the cheek as he helped him to his feet, and R'dek rewarded him with an affectionate smile. Caresn was indeed worried about a lot of things, naturally. He'd spent the last few days in the forest, gathering an unprecedented amount of mosses and other herbs and plants he'd need to treat the wounds and injuries sure to result from the coming fight. He was unhappy about all of it, though he knew there was nothing to be done to prevent it, and most especially he was worried about Loren.

There was nothing to be done about that either, however, anymore than there was any way to convince R'dek to stay away from the fight. Rodne had already tried. Instead he did his best not to think about it, as Caresn was surely trying not to think about the danger Loren would be in, and fortunately there was a host of other things to occupy Rodne's thoughts, and Caresn's too. Unfortunately, too many of those things merely added further worries.

"By all the Gods," Rodne could hear Caresn's voice, strident and exhausted as they approached his hut. "If there's a place for you on the boats then you should go, Meera. Ye've wee ones to care for, and they don't need their mum out dodging arrows and putting herself at risk while helping me."

"Um, hey..." Rodne said, poking his head in the door to see Careson and Meera facing off in the center of the healer's hut. There was almost no room to move in there, as everywhere was piled high with baskets and bundles of things that Caresn, and Meera, had collected over the last few days. "We thought maybe you'd like to get some lunch?" Rodne said uncertainly. "Or we could come back later...?"

Caresn spared Rodne a cursory glance, returning his determined gaze to Meera, but her look was even more determined, and Rodne already knew who was going to win this argument. After a moment Caresn came to the same conclusion, and his shoulders slumped tiredly. "It seems I'm finished here for now," he said with a sigh. "And a bit of nourishment and fresh air would likely do me some good."

They spread out their provisions on a grassy patch by the shady side of Caresn's hut, and it was harvest season, so the provisions were fresh and abundant. Rodne lit into the fresh berries, bread and cheese with gusto as always, but after a few mouthfuls could not help but noticing that neither of his dining companions seemed to have anywhere near as much appetite as he did.

"Oh come on guys," he exhorted. "Wild raspberry season only lasts about six days, and okay, yes, this year's has unhappily coincided with our raider crisis, but it's still raspberry season."

Caresn, at least, cracked a smile at this and reached for the bowl of berries. "Aye, you've a point, no mistake," he admitted, popping a few in his mouth. "And it was a particularly fine year for them. R'dek?" Carson passed to bowl over, but the toolmaker only shook his head. R'dek had a piece of bread in his hand, and he seemed to have taken a couple of bites, but Rodne didn't think he'd eaten anything else.

"R'dek, lad," Carson prompted, "has your wound been troubling you? I know I've been so busy, I haven't looked at it in a few days. Maybe..."

"Is fine," R'dek interrupted bluntly, biting off another chunk of bread and chewing aggressively.

There was a moment of silence and then Caresn said, slowly, "Then you won't mind if I have a look at it, will you." It wasn't a question.

R'dek huffed and set down his bread. "Look then, if you must," he snapped, unfastening his leggings to reveal his injury. 

Caresn came over to R'dek's side, looking closely, and then laying his hands gently over the wound, moving down it's length. When they came to about a handspan above his knee, R'dek flinched a little. "Is it paining you a bit there?" Caresn asked, nothing at all accusative in his tone.

Disarmed by Caresn's gentleness, R'dek frowned and then nodded. "A little," he admitted.

"Aye," Caresn said, nodding. "It feels a bit warm here, which isn't so surprising considering it was deepest here." Caresn knelt back to meet R'dek's gaze. "I appreciate that you've been keeping off it, for the most part," he said, "and that getting good food and rest is like to be difficult these days, but I'd like you to try. I'd also like you to start taking that tea I gave you mornings _and_ evenings. Can ye do that, lad?"

R'dek nodded, sighing and tying up his leggings when Caresn lifted his hand away. Rodne was relieved to hear that R'dek was still healing well, but it seemed to him that there was still something not quite right with his lover. Caresn seemed to think so too if the long steady look he was giving R'dek was any indication.

"Can you tell me what else is troubling you, lad?" Caresn finally asked outright when R'dek remained silent. R'dek frowned and lifted his hands to push his hair out of his face, glancing over at Rodne, and then back at Caresn. Evidently seeing the concern on both his friends' faces, he finally gave a resigned sigh, staring down at the grass as he spoke.

"There are memories..." he said at last. "Memories I have not visited in a long time... that come to haunt me now. It is too close, what is happening here now. I see my brother's face in those of the young men who will go out and fight with slings and stones... and I cannot help but wonder how many will not come back, as he did not."

"Aye, I thought as much," Caresn said kindly, reaching up to lay a hand on R'dek's shoulder. "There's naught any of us can do save to wait for the 'morrow," he said. "But don't forget that there's those here as care for you too. You're not alone, lad."

R'dek nodded, still looking down. "I know," he said quietly, but all Rodne could think of was that R'dek would be among those sling stone throwers too, and suddenly his own appetite fled. He was not sure how R'dek, so lost in his own troubles, came to sense Rodne's change in mood, but now R'dek's hand was on his own shoulder, grip firm and strong.

"Rodne," he said. "I will not leave you, as my brother left me, I promise you."

Rodne wanted to believe him, wanted more than anything to take comfort in R'dek's promise, but the words that came out of his mouth were fearful and bitter. "And you think your brother didn't make the same promise, to your mother? To you?" Rodne could not meet R'dek's eyes, but it didn't matter. In the next moment R'dek's arms were around him, holding Rodne tight.

"I will not, I will not," R'dek was murmuring, desperate conviction in his words. "By all the Gods I swear it, Rodne, I will not leave your side."

Rodne returned his lover's embrace, knowing that neither one of them could promise much. They both had jobs to do that would place them in harm's way, for the only other choice was to abandon Lakeside and their friends and this they could not do. "I know," Rodne said. "I know, and I'll stick by yours, no matter what."

The rest of lunch was a quiet affair, but they each made a good meal of it, knowing that nourishing themselves well was as necessary for the defense of the village as any of the other preparations they were making. Afterwards Rodne went out to walk the borders of the village, checking and rechecking the trip lines to be sure they were all tied securely.

R'dek went off to practice his sling skills, which were not so bad as long as he remained within about twenty paces of his target, and his target was a wide trunked tree. Rodne found him still hard at work when he returned from his rounds, even thought it was growing late and the light was failing.

"You know," Rodne offered, "you could help me manage the trip lines instead of trying to be a fighter. You know the knots, and we'll probably need more people on that job."

"You will need someone to watch your back as you do this work as well, yes?" R'dek said, letting another stone fly and grunting in satisfaction as hit the tree with a loud smack. "And also," he continued, running the straps of his sling through his fingers, "I want to hurt them. I want to hurt them very much."

"Yeah, okay," Rodne said quietly, understanding, even if the understanding worried him and made him feel sad for reasons he couldn't quite fathom. "But right now we've got just enough light left to gather up all the stones you've been practicing with, and then Caresn's made some good rabbit stew. That okay?"

"It is, yes," R'dek replied with a nod, walking with Rodne to the base of the tree to gather his stones. They returned to Caresn's hut for dinner in silence, and the three of them partook of their meal in much the same manner, each of them lost in their own troubling thoughts. It was almost with relief that they heard the news that Yinte brought them as they finished their dinner, carrying it from hut to hut through the whole village.

The raiders were making their preparations, he told them, and would almost certainly come to Lakeside at dawn tomorrow.

***


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle begins.

None of them slept terribly well, and so waking before dawn was no difficulty. For Rodne, setting himself to the tasks he had planned over the last handful of days was infinitely preferable to tossing and turning and battling his worries as he had all night. Meera's soft knock as she'd come and brought the morning tea had been a welcome one, and they'd breakfasted in silence, and quickly.

There was a mist rising, barely visible in the gray, predawn light, and it helped mask both the sight and sound of the people of Lakeside, hastening to their appointed places. There were quiet murmurs and the occasional sound of a fussing baby as the those bound for the boats embarked, but they used muffled paddles as they left the shore, so not even their movement through the water made much sound.

Rodne and R'dek found their places at the south-easternmost of the the gaps in the barricade, Rodne carrying the small sack of sling stones that R'dek added to the pile he had gathered there over the last few days. Rodne gave a silent nod to Truva and Emat, the two apprentice weavers who would be helping Rodne maintain the trip lines here, and R'dek frowned seriously at the handful of nervous and fidgety youths who gathered on the other side of the gap, each carrying their own bag of sling stones. The youngsters sobered a bit at R'dek's cue, and then a moment later melted into the tall grass on either side of the trip lines. R'dek, Rodne and his two helpers did the same.

They waited.

It sounded to Rodne's ears like distant thunder at first, but he saw R'dek's gaze grow sharp, brows furrowed. "They come," he murmured and then hissed loudly as a warning to the other stone throwers hidden all around. They continued waiting, and Rodne heard the thunder grow louder. His first impulse was to stand to get a good look at the unfamiliar beasts that made such a sound, but then came another sound -a sound of men's voices pitched high in a battle cry, and Rodne needed no prompting to stay down.

They drew near enough for Rodne to see, even through the tall grass, a moment later, as four of them approached the place where he hid at great speed. In fact, it almost seemed that the great, sharp hoofed beasts were headed straight for the place where he and R'dek crouched, but R'dek remained where he was at Rodne's side, still as a statue. Then, in the blink of an eye, the riders were upon them and into the trip lines at full speed. The riding beasts, which had made no sound up to now save for snorts and rough breaths, suddenly gave a scream the like of which Rodne knew would feature in his nightmares for the rest of his life, and fell, hard, missing Rodne as they tumbled by the narrowest of margins.

It happened so fast Rodne could hardly catch it all. One rider was thrown, high and far and landed, unmoving, some distance away. Another, Rodne saw, landed close to where he crouched, and then had his horse land on him. He screamed once, then fell silent and Rodne could clearly see that he must be dead. His beast, however, was not, and continued to make the terrible inhuman screaming sound as it tried to rise in spite of what Rodne could see was obviously a broken leg. R'dek rose swiftly from beside him and slit the creature's throat.

A little distance away Rodne could hear the triumphant shouts of the other sling stone throwers as a fallen rider with a broken leg succumbed to their missiles, his horse limping away, riderless along with another, whose rider lay on the ground -his neck broken. That was four down, from who knew how many. Glancing at R'dek, Rodne saw the toolmaker looking around in grim satisfaction as he wiped the blood off his knife.

He could hear other shouts and screams from other parts of the village's defenses, but could make little of what transpired there. If their own circumstances were any indicator, their first strike had gone well, but the battle was hardly begun, much less won. And he had a job to do, Rodne recalled now, and more of a job than he had realized, for the dead horse had come to lie over the trip line. It took Rodne plus his two assistants and a couple of the young stone throwers to drag it off, and this left the line that had proved its undoing more than visible above the trampled grass.

Rodne reset the stake and line as his assistants attempted to comb the grasses back over it, but Rodne wasn't too worried about that. The secret was out, and they would not catch their enemies so unaware again. A sharp tug at his wrist caught Rodne's attention now and he saw that another group of riders had gathered a little ways away, and were aiming their bows in their direction. A scattering or arrows fell around them as Rodne and the others dove into the as yet untrampled grass.

To Rodne's surprise, the archers were soon answered with a volley of spears, coming from behind the nearest barricade. Rodne had not seen them draw near, and neither, it seemed, had the raiders, for one fell with a spear through his belly, and another had his horse struck, the creature screaming in that horrific way, and falling, throwing its rider. From what he could see, the fallen rider seemed injured, but not fatally, as he began to rise, slowly, and to his dismay Rodne could now also see a motion in the grass closer by, that told him that one of the sling stone throwers was making his way toward the injured rider.

"Don't..." Rodne murmured futilely, for he knew the remaining mounted raiders had a vantage point, and seemed happy to use their fallen comrade as bait to draw the stone throwers out. Sure enough, now the riders launched another volley of arrows into the tall grass and a moment later there was a sharp scream and then silence.

"Trigan!" cried another one of the stone throwers in horror, followed by much loud shushing and further scurrying in the grass. More arrows fell in their general direction, though none struck their mark, and then two of the riders drew closer. Rodne saw the reason for this a moment later as one of hunters, Marak'm, the idiot, was standing up behind the barricade and shouting, taunting the raiders. Incredibly, however, the childish dare worked, for now the two raiders broke off from the group and headed straight for the trip wires again.

They came more cautiously this time, however, and it seemed unlikely that they would fall afoul of the trip lines again. Rodne watched them carefully, and saw that their eyes were on the hunters, crouched behind the barrier up ahead, and that they seemed to have forgotten about the sling stone throwers. They didn't seem to see R'dek at all, and Rodne watched in terror as the toolmaker crept boldly forward, stone at the ready, until he was nearly among the horses feet.

The nearby riders did not notice R'dek, but R'dek could not see the ones that stood back, and one of those, Rodne could now see, feeling his heart in his throat, seemed to have spied R'dek, and was nocking an arrow to his bow... There was a soft whistle and a thud, and now R'dek's sling was empty and one of the two nearer riders slumped and fell from his horse without a sound and a heartbeat later Rodne shouted and leapt, tackling R'dek even as an arrow struck the ground right where he had been crouching.

The second rider, arrow at the ready, turned back to shoot the nearest target, of which might have been either him or R'dek, when a spear seemed to materialize from nowhere into the raider's thigh and his horse's side. He and his horse both screamed, he dropped his weapon and the horse fell, pinning the man under him. Turning from where he lay beneath Rodne, R'dek gave a savage grin and kissed Rodne briefly in the cheek before struggling to his feet, hand on his knife, to approach the trapped rider.

The fallen horse was dying, shuddering in its death throes and its rider bared his teeth as R'dek approached, reaching for his own knife and Rodne watch the scene with deep trepidation. Radek paused, seeing the rider's defiance, and gave a cold and humorless laugh. He put his knife back in his boot and drew his sling out instead, stooping to gather a fist sized rock from his nearby cache. Sling held at the ready, R'dek uttered what was undoubtedly a curse at the man in his mother tongue, spitting the words with a malevolence Rodne had never before seen in his lover. Then he let the missile fly. It struck the rider right between the eyes and he fell still, knife dropping from his lifeless fingers.

Rodne felt a wave of feeling come over him for a moment, though he was not sure whether it was an urge to throw up or to cry. He had never seen so much death before, nor so much violence, and it sickened him. It frightened him too, to see R'dek so filled with it. The toolmaker he knew and loved had seemed such a gentle man, and now he was slitting another horse's throat with a dead man's dagger, blood on his hands and feet, and he seemed utterly unperturbed by it. A retching sound nearby told Rodne that one of his apprentice weavers was not so unaffected and he went to help the lad, holding his head till the moment passed and then handing him his flask of water to drink from. He was just handing the flask back when an arrow appeared in the lad's thigh.

Emat dropped the flask, staring huge eyed at where the shaft protruded from his flesh, then drew a breath to scream. Acting more quickly than he imagined possible, Rodne clapped his hand over the lad's mouth and pulled them both down, looking this way and that to try and see where the missile had come from. It took all his strength to hold the boy down as he writhed in agony and tried to scream around Rodne's hand, and Rodne's own heart was pounding in terror. He couldn't see anything, though he could hear the sounds of R'dek and the others moving in the tall grass around him.

"Stay down!" came R'dek's urgent whisper and Rodne could see him now, crawling very low in the grass past Rodney. He passed so close that Rodne could see the scar in R'dek's thigh through the lacings of his leggings, and could see that the some of the half healed places had broken open again, bleeding slightly here and there. The wave of helpless anger the vision sparked took Rodne by surprise.

"Thanks!" he hissed almost loudly. "I was just gonna stand up and draw attention to myself!" Emat still struggled beneath him, but his movements were becoming less frantic now.

R'dek did not dignify Rodne's comment with an answer and, craning his neck to look up and ahead, Rodne could now see the rider R'dek was approaching. He was about a hundred paces away, and luckily he was facing the other direction. From the rider's height on his horse, Rodne knew that he and Emat -and R'dek- would be completely visible. But R'dek was stalking the man like Spitt with a mouse. He and R'dek had both watched her do this more than once, and it seemed that R'dek had taken what he'd seen to heart.

Twenty paces, Rodney thought, heart in his throat. He'd watched R'dek do the same thing with another rider only a little while ago, but that man had been distracted. This one was looking for him. The rider moved forward a pace and R'dek stopped, still somewhat further out than twenty paces, Rodne thought, but it seemed R'dek had chosen to take his shot from here. He was just dropping the stone into his sling when the rider turned.

The rider already had his arrow nocked, and Rodne was choking back a cry of despair when R'dek's stone flew, so fast Rodne hadn't even seen R'dek's hand move. The rider was releasing the arrow as the stone struck him in the neck, hard, so that he dropped the bow, even as the arrow flew. It went high and fell short, and as soon as the other stone throwers saw that he was unarmed they rose together, and the raider was struck with a dozen missiles in succession. Some of the stones struck his horse as well and the frightened creature trampled its rider when he fell under the assault. Then the animal fled, leaving only a stunned silence in it's wake.

Rodne rose slowly, relaxing his grip on Emat as he did. "Can you stay quiet if I take my hand away?" he asked and the boy, his eyes wide and his face wet with tears, nodded. Emat gave an agonized whimper but, admirably, made no other sound as Rodne lifted his hand. A moment later R'dek had joined them, as had Truva, who lifted her hands to her face in horror as she saw the arrow in her comrade's leg.

"Hold very still," R'dek said, and then without further warning, grabbed the base of the arrow shaft just above where it protruded from Emat's thigh and, with is other hand, broke it off short.

"That will prevent it from causing you further injury," R'dek said, "and you should not attempt to remove the arrow yourself. Let Caresn do it."

Emat nodded again, still staring at the bloody, broken arrow shaft sticking out of his leg, as Rodne and Truva eased him into a sitting position. "Truva," Rodne asked, "do you think you can get him to the injury tent?" In anticipation of many injuries, Caresn had erected a covered area among a grove of snow bark trees in the village where the wounded could be brought. Meera and her cousin and sister would be there too, to help.

"I can," Truva said with a nod, getting her arm around Emat's shoulder. "Come on Em," she encouraged. "You can stand on your other leg, right?"

Rodne had a feeling that young Emat was a little sweet on Truva, and nothing could have been better motivation to get the lad on his feet. He was up soon enough, arm wrapped around Truva's waist, biting his lip and doing his best to put on a brave face. "Check in with Caresn when you get to the injury tent," Rodne told Truva as they headed off. "If he needs the help, go ahead and stay with him, and if he doesn't, check in with the other trip line teams. I think we may have seen all the action we're going to get here."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle continues, and more or less comes to a conclusion.

Rodne watched them go with a feeling of relief. There were two utter innocents that he wasn't going to have to worry about being responsible for anymore. The look he traded with R'dek let him know that the toolmaker felt the same way. It seemed that they had, for now at least, come to a respite, here on the southeast side, anyhow, for no riders were visible anywhere near. To the south they could see a group of riders gathered, and it made sense that they would direct their main effort here, for the gap between the barricades was widest here.

"Where are our spear-men?" R'dek asked, squinting into the distance. 

"There they are," Rodne said, pointing out a flight of weapons heading into the riders where they were most densely grouped. Rodne could hear the distant screams and cries that told him that some hits had been made. The group of riders scattered after that, some charging towards where Rodne knew the trip lines lay, and others to the west, along the boarders of the village. That was when Rodne spotted the smoke.

"Crap!" Rodne cried, able to see several flaming arrows fly into the village, even at a distance.

"We are well prepared, Rodne," R'dek reassured him, laying a hand on Rodne's shoulder. "We have people ready to prevent this from causing much damage, as you know."

"Right, right," Rodne said anxiously, then looked up as R'dek suddenly uttered one of his odd foreign swearwords. "What?!" he snapped in alarm.

"Look, there," R'dek pointed at a lone rider, moving at great speed, away from the others and toward the east, toward their position... but not quite.

"He's not heading over here," Rodne wondered aloud. "Where is he going, and why?"

"He is headed to the lake shore," R'dek said, "and he has fire."

"Well that doesn't make much sense," Rodne said, "what on earth could he be hoping to burn way over there..." But Rodne knew the answer even as the words left his lips.

"The dock," R'dek answered him, "And anyone who comes there to put out the fire will be far too exposed."

They had not thought of this in their plans, Rodne reflected with chagrin, and he hoped that the fire crews in the village would determine that it was better to let the dock burn than to risk death or capture. In the far distance, from the center of the lake, came the faint taunts and cries of the women sheltering on the boats -at least these were safe from fire thanks to Li'bet's foresight- but the lone raider ignored them, sending three or four flaming arrows into the unattended wooden dock. A few moments the dry boards of Lakeside's only dock were burning freely and the raider turned to head back to his comrades.

"Come," R'dek was suddenly turning to go. "We can cut him off. If we could not stop him, at least we can make him pay for what he has done." Rodne understood the sentiment, but the grim tone and dark promise in his lover's voice troubled him. It was clearly appropriate for the moment, however, and the other stone throwers that R'dek passed this message to seemed to have no problem with it. Maybe, Rodne reflected, the problem was with him, that he had no stomach for this fight, as just as it was.

The rider was not looking in their direction at all, and so Rodne, R'dek and the other sling bearers covered much of the distance toward the lone invader at a run. They ducked down into the tall grass as they drew close, scattering across the area where they thought their enemy might pass. 

In their excitement, of course, someone let fly way too early, and now the rider knew he was being stalked. He slowed and drew forth an arrow, and Rodne could see that he still had his firepot, for the arrow he nocked to his bow left a trail of smoke. He might not be able to see his would be assailants, Rodne realized, but with this weapon he need not see his target. The dry grasses that hid them would burn like tinder, turning from sanctuary to enemy in a heartbeat.

Rodne had wondered why he had followed along after the group intent on wreaking vengeance on this rider, as he had no weapon and, for all of his visual acuity, had never been able to hit anything with a sling or spear. Now he knew what he was here to do, besides sticking to R'dek's side as he had promised, and he had his tunic off in a flash, scurrying over to where the first flaming arrow had fallen and used it to smother the smoldering grass before it spread.

He'd made himself a target now, of course, but this had also drawn the rider's attention away from the others hidden all around. Rodne scrambled desperately through the grass as he heard the whistles of several sling stones being launched at the raider. He took advantage of the man's preoccupation with his assault and dove into a dense patch of grass, turning to look back only when he was sure he was well hidden.

The raider had another arrow out, directing it towards where many of the missiles aimed at him had come from. This time luck was with him and against the Lakesiders, for moments after the arrow was loosed a terrified cry came up from where it had landed. Wondering when it had become instinctive in him to run toward trouble, Rodne grabbed his singed tunic and dashed toward the sound of distress, while all around him those with sling stones sent up another volley.

This one was sent was cries of rage and vengeance, and it proved the rider's undoing. He fell from his horse after two hard strikes to the head, and the sling bearers converged upon him once he was down and helpless. Rodne did not watch, going instead to attend to the wounded fighter, but from the sounds he was hearing, the fallen raider did not die quickly or well.

It was Brinna, one of the baker's apprentices, who had been stuck, and the arrow had gone into her side, just below her left breast. It had not gone too deeply, for the burning, oil soaked rag wrapped just below the arrowhead had prevented it, but it had burned her terribly before she'd put the fire out in her panic. Now, Rodne could see, her hands were burned as well, and the wound was fouled with bits of rag and soot. He did as R'dek had done earlier, snapping off the arrow shaft just above where it entered, and did his best to clean the dirt away from her injury, even as Brinna sobbed and writhed in pain.

Deban, tall for his age and destined to be a fine hunter in a year or two, stepped up then and gathered the weeping girl in his arms, promising Rodne that he'd take the girl directly to the healer. He left with Brinna's little sister, also a crack shot with a sling, trailing behind him, promising to cover them if they ran into trouble.

R'dek stepped up to his side then, spattered in blood Rodne did not want to ask about. He plucked at the garment in Rodne's hands, badly singed now and smeared with Brinna's blood. "You have ruined your tunic," R'dek said quietly, and Rodne realized that there was a thread of worry in his tone. Rodne shrugged.

"It was an old one," he said, "and you've been telling me I should have Pretna make me something new and nice for a while now."

"True," R'dek said thoughtfully, and then said, "You did not have to come out here with us. I... I did not think, when I said we should go, and you put yourself in danger."

"What, and you haven't?" Rodne retorted.

"I know," R'dek said, "But I think..." R'dek looked down now, as though he were ashamed of something. "Some part of me had the idea that this was not really your fight."

"In what way?!" Rodne exclaimed, indignant.

"I know it was foolish," R'dek said, "and I am sorry. Facing this enemy, it has made me lose perspective, made me forget somethings that I should not have forgotten..." He trailed off, troubled, but did not explain further.

"I think we will neither one of us have to place ourselves in danger again today, however," R'dek continued again after a moment. "I think that our enemy has gathered for a final charge, and I think they will not succeed."

Radek indicated a knot of horsemen gathering just beyond the reach of the hunters' spears to the south and Rodne nodded in concurrence. "Yeah," he said. "Looks like there's about eight of them left now. Is that really all of them? It seemed like there were a lot more at first, but I have no idea how many."

"I am not either certain the size of the force that first came," R'dek said. "But our group alone have put an end to seven of them. It seems likely that others have had similar successes."

Rodne nodded, but he was mostly intent on the action before the south entrance of the village. "Of course," he said in quiet admiration after a moment.

"What?" R'dek asked. "What is happening?"

"They haven't hit the trip lines there yet," Rodne explained. "Did you notice how we hardly saw any of the spearmen down where we were? They were over there, keeping the raiders away from the south entrance, as if they really didn't want the raiders to come that way. It's made them think that we haven't covered that entrance for some reason, and now they're going to run right into it. What a brilliant strategy! I wonder if it was Loren's idea?"

"It is possible," R'dek answered, squinting again at the massed riders. "What are they doing now, Rodne? Sakra! I wish I could see better!"

"Come on," said Rodne. "Let's get closer. We can make sure we're still positioned between the raiders and our entrance, in case some of them come this way."

R'dek nodded, gesturing to the four remaining sling bearers to follow along while remaining scattered widely across the field.

"One of them is coming out in front of the others," Rodne reported said when they finally stopped. "I think he must be the leader... sure looks like it anyway."

"How do you mean?" R'dek asked.

Rodne considered the man beckoning the other riders to follow him in the distance. He was tall, with hair as black as a raven's wings, some loose and some hanging in shoulder length braids ornamented with colored beads and feathers. His horse was black too, its mane and tail similarly braided and bedecked, and it carried itself proudly, prancing impatiently before the others. Shiny metal ornaments circled the raider's neck and wrists, which also set him apart from the others, and they gleamed in the sun. Undoubtedly, the man was a bandit and a murderer, as were all those in his band, but Rodne could not help feeling some small admiration for the man. He was magnificent in a savage, terrifying way, and Rodne could not take his eyes off him.

"He's, ah, wearing more jewelry than the others," Rodne finally managed for an answer. "And I think his horse is better... not that I know anything about horses..."

R'dek nodded, concurring with his assessment. "The leader must show off the best of the spoils he has taken," he said, "as proof that he is a better thief and killer than his fellows."

"Yeah..." said Rodne, distracted. "Makes sense." The leader had gotten four of his remaining fighters to follow him, and now they were off, gaining speed as they approached the unseen barrier at the village entrance. "Gods," Rodne said letting a little dismay creep into his voice. "They're going to destroy themselves on those trip lines, going at that speed. It's completely reckless."

"He has no choice," R'dek said, coolly. "He has lost too many men on this raid, and if he turns back now, he will be seen as a coward. He would probably not live out the night."

"His own people would kill him?" Rodne turned back to gape at R'dek, but the toolmaker only shrugged.

"They are barbarians," R'dek said. "Little more than wolves that walk as men. If they must destroy themselves against our defenses, then so much the better for all civilized people."

"I guess..." Rodne said, eyes back on the proud leader of the raiders, riding to his destruction, though he seemed not the least aware of it. Crouched on the back of the elegant beast that moved like the wind, the man seemed almost to be flying, moving with his mount as though they were one. Still a handful of paces ahead of their fellows, the leader, his fine braids fluttering in the wind, urged his mount straight into the trip lines, even as Rodne wondered if he could bear to watch. One moment he was riding, and then he _was_ flying, thrown from his horse's back as the creature struck the trip lines and went down.

He was flying high, arcing over the trip lines and then he was falling, hitting the ground, rolling for some paces and then coming to a rest at last. His horse, Rodne saw, had recovered itself with astonishing skill and was limping away now, crying out in fear and alarm. If it was a warning to its fellows, it did not come soon enough, for the handful of riders who had followed in their leader's wake were all among the trip lines now. Three had gone down and one had slowed and was trying to extricate itself, but he was now too easy a target for the spearmen. In the space of a handful of heartbeats, all the raiders who had made the charge with their leader were dead.

The leader himself, however, Rodne now observed, was not. It seemed a miracle, or perhaps the man was merely very skilled at falling off his horse at high speeds, which wasn't an unreasonable guess, but Rodne could see him slowly pushing himself up from the ground where he had fallen. He was surrounded by angry spearmen a moment later, of course, and they pulled him to his feet, binding him and making him a prisoner.

The remaining raiders saw this as well, and a moment later they turned and rode off. Their leader having made the sacrifice for their bad luck, they were apparently free to abandon him and return to their comrades without penalty. Were they really such uncaring, 'wolves who walk as men' as R'dek had described them? It seemed so.

"We have beaten them!" R'dek cried jubilantly beside him, then calling out to the fleeing horsemen, "Run, run you cowards! Run back to your fellows and tell them how a bunch of simple villagers massacred you like sheep!"

R'dek's taunts emboldened the sling bearers rising from the grass around them, and they too hurled insults after the departing raiders, but they were, by now, much too far gone to hear. Rodne only stood, a bit stunned to realized that they had indeed beaten the fearsome raiders. "We really did it?" he said, turning to R'dek in disbelief. "We really... it all worked... and we survived..." The minute the words were out of his mouth, however, Rodne recalled that some had not.

There was a silent moment as everyone else realized the same thing. "We, um, should probably go back and get Trigan," Rodne said finally.

"Yes," said R'dek solemnly. "We should."

 

****


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the battle takes its toll.

They made a somber little procession coming into Lakeside, and they weren't the only one. Rodne ended up carrying Trigan's body, as R'dek was still injured and the other sling bearers with them were youngsters, more or less. The lad, eldest son of Karal, one of Lakeside's many fishermen, had been struck through the heart, and R'dek told Rodne that he had probably died instantly. It was meant, Rodne imagined, to be a consolation, but Rodne's trouble was with the fact that the boy had died at all, and he suspected that the lad's parents would feel the same.

They were spared the awful task of telling Karal -Truva or Deban probably had- but the man was looking for them as they came into the village and came running over the moment he saw Rodne and his unhappy burden.

"Really, really sorry..." was all that Rodne could manage as the man took the body of his son from Rodne, sinking to his knees as he wept and rocked the boy in his arms. Karal had been with the firefighters, and he was streaked with mud and soot and now his face was streaked with tears too. The image tore at something inside Rodne, and he couldn't say whether what he felt was unbearable sorrow or rage, but he had to turn away suddenly, hands clenched into fists.

He felt R'dek's hands on his arms before he saw him, and then he was enveloped in a crushing embrace and R'dek's voice was in his ear, saying, "It's not your fault, it's not... it's not..."

Rodne started to say, 'it's not your brother,' but then didn't, because in a way, it was. It was another innocent youth who'd only wanted to protect his village and his family, who'd wanted to be a man and now never would be. There were words that might be said about his sacrifice and bravery, and they would be said a lot over the next few days, but none would really address Karal's grief, nor his mother, Ferya's, when she learned. There would be more grieving mothers in Lakeside, when the boats returned, Rodne was grimly certain. 

Exactly how many, however, Rodne did not know, and now he very much wanted to. He drew back from R'dek to see that his lover's face was wet. Rodne felt his own tears very close to the surface, but they had not yet broken through. They would soon enough, he was sure, but he thought that maybe he would prefer to be alone with R'dek when they did. "I want to find Caresn," Rodne said finally, and R'dek nodded.

In their slow trek through the chaotic village -R'dek was limping badly now, Rodne noticed- they saw many reunions, some joyful, some tragic. It seemed that most of their casualties had occurred among the sling bearers, which was not so surprising. Most were young men and women, but a few were older men who'd never become hunters but had some skill with a sling. Thus it was that Emat had survived the wound in his leg, but his father had not. His aunt was sitting with him now under the shelter set up for the wounded, holding his hand as the two of them wept.

Yinte was there too, sitting with a cousin who had been among the sling bearers at the northern entrance and who had taken an arrow in the shoulder. There, Yinte and his cousin Vedir recounted, the raiders had taken a terrible toll on those defending the entrance, because a hill sloped up from the village border to the north, giving the raiders a clear view of the defenders hiding in the grass. Only Vedir and Hallen had survived there, and only R'non's bow had kept the raiders from approaching the entrance. All in all, Yinte told them, gesturing toward the central green where the bodies were being laid out, it seemed that twelve men and women of Lakeside had given up their lives defending their home.

It was likely, Rodne thought, looking over the thirty or more wounded laying under the hide roof, erected to shelter the wounded, that one or more of those here now would join those lying on the green. It meant, Rodne's calculatory mind immediately supplied, that a little more than one person out of twenty from Lakeside's two hundred residents had paid the ultimate price for the safety of their fellows. If they had to do it again, he reflected, they could, and they could probably reduce the death toll considerably, as they had learned a lot today. Rodne knew he had anyway.

"Yinte," do you know where Caresn is?" R'dek was asking, and Rodne shook himself from his reverie to hear the answer. "I thought we would find him here, but I don't see him."

"Since there are no more newly injured coming," Yinte told them, "he has gone to treat the raider. They said he was injured when he fell from his horse."

"Injured," Rodne muttered. "It's a miracle he's not dead. Did you see him 'fall'?"

Yinte shook his head. "Did you?" he asked, wide eyed. "They're saying he was dressed in gold and jewels, and his riding beast too, and that they flew like the wind... until they hit our trap!" Yinte grinned at his retelling of how this fight would almost certainly be remembered, regardless of the facts. 

"Yes, we saw him," Rodne said, rolling his eyes, "and he was _not_ wearing gold _or_ jewels, and neither was his horse." Yinte's face fell, and Rodne gave a defeated sigh. "Though they were both, um, decked out a bit with some kind of shiny metal and other, ah, stuff."

Now Yinte smiled up at him with near hero worship that made Rodne squirm a bit inside. "Anyhow," he said a little loudly. "We were going to go and find Caresn, yes?"

R'dek laughed and stood, slowly and a little painfully. "We're going to have to get him to look at that too," Rodne said, gesturing at R'dek's leg as they headed toward where Yinte had said the prisoner was being kept. That was at the eastern edge of the village, not so far from where the smoldering remains of their dock stood, and R'dek's limp got worse and worse as they walked. Rodne had begun thinking about how Caresn was going to tear R'dek a new one for aggravating his injury so badly, but eventually ended up suggesting that R'dek stop and rest were he was and that Rodne would go and get Carson and bring him here. R'dek would have none of it, however.

"I wish to see the prisoner," R'dek said, eyes hard, and would not say any more. He didn't even let Rodne lend him a shoulder after that, and so Rodne only sighed and walked with him in silence. Li'bet was there when they arrived, as were Loren, Marakm, Sitakhus and Ml'lar, Telaya and R'non, and Caresn. The healer was just standing up from where the prisoner lay bound, brushing the sand off his knees and looking around so that he noticed Rodne and R'dek right away. He also noticed R'dek's limp, and the fresh blood staining his leggings.

"Gods above," he said with a resigned sigh. "I just knew you'd do yourself a mischief out there today... though I suppose you might have come out of it far worse. R'dek, lad, you should've just waited for me back at the injury tent; I'd have got to you eventually." 

R'dek only shook his head, looking past Carson to the prisoner. "I came here to see him," R'dek said in a flat voice that Rodne found disturbing for some reason. "You can look at my wound when we come back to your hut later."

Rodne and Caresn shared a helpless gaze, though Caresn's was a little surprised as well. Rodne was not, for he had figured the pattern by now. R'dek got a little weird when there were raiders around -weird in a kind of disturbing way. He and Caresn stood back now and let R'dek pass and walk up to where their prisoner knelt on the grass. He was kneeling by necessity, as his wrists were bound together and in turn bound to his ankles, which were likewise tied. All these bindings were fastened to a span of rope no more than two paces in length which was tied to a stout pole, half as tall as a man. He was hobbled and leashed, like an ill behaved dog, Rodne thought, and somehow that seemed wrong to him too.

Perhaps that was because, hobbled or no, he was not at all humbled. Beaten and streaked with dirt, his shoulder bound as -Caresn explained- he had put it out of it's joint when he landed, his fine copper and bronze jewelry removed, the man still seemed almost regal, in his own way, and Rodne could tell that he knew it. He was dressed in a black leather vest and leggings, and Rodne recalled that he'd had bracers on his forearms earlier, but they'd been removed along with his necklaces and bracelets. Clearly the man was fit and strong, back held proud and straight even as he knelt, and Rodne could easily see why he'd been a leader. R'dek, however, seemed to see none of that.

He stood silently for a long moment, his gaze holding a burning hatred that it disturbed Rodne to see, then, without warning, he spat on the prisoner, the spittle striking his face. What followed was undoubtedly a stream of the vilest swears imaginable... in a language that no one there but R'dek could understand. Even the raider, whose expression up to now had been one of casual contempt, wavered a bit, letting a little dismay show. R'dek's rant continued to build speed until, with lightning speed, he lifted his hand and struck the man on the face, hard. The raider swayed with the force of the strike, but did not flinch, and a second later Loren had hold of R'dek's hand, holding it back from further acts of violence.

R'dek turned on Loren now, fury in his gaze, but held back, containing himself until the fury abated and R'dek relaxed... somewhat. "Sorry, can't be doing that, friend," Loren admonished, and R'dek yanked his hand away, turning back to the prisoner with an angry glower.

"R'dek, he is our prisoner, but he is also out guest," Li'bet said now, stepping forward to stand before R'dek and the raider. "If we are better than they are, then we need to show it by our actions, no matter how strong our feelings may be."

"Do you expect a wolf to be swayed by our high principles?" R'dek snapped. "Would you show mercy to the lion that has slain your neighbor's children and comes to slay yours? This... this _creature_ deserves nothing but to die, slowly and unpleasantly."

"Say, friend..." the raider spoke at last, his tone shockingly relaxed and even laconic. "I really don't know what your gripe is with me, but I can tell you for a fact that I have never been anywhere that they talk like you talk... if that helps to clarify matters."

"Your... kind," R'dek spat the words with such venom, "have murdered and raped and thieved their way across the whole land, and your hands are red with every drop of blood spilled in their vile acts. It was your people who killed my family and half of my old village, your people who destroyed their village," R'dek gestured toward Teleya and R'non, "and countless others like it. I call you to account for all of it!"

Li'bet looked a little discomfited by this, and the raider a touch displeased, then his eyes narrowed and his expression turned sly.

"Oh, I bet I know what's going on here," he said, his tone poisonously condescending. "You were hoping to find your daddy, weren't you? I'll bet you're one of those kids whose mommy told you that she only knew your daddy for one night, but that he promised to come back some day and make a man of you, isn't that right?" When the raider grinned now he did almost look like a wolf, Rodne thought.

"Well, I hate to break it to you, guy," the raider continued, everyone else too outraged to stop him, "but while I've certainly left my share of spawn behind in a dozen or more villages, you're a little old to be one of mine. Sorry." The man's callously amused expression put the lie to his last words, and only twisted the knife, and this had the expected result.

"Filth!!" R'dek spat and hauled back to hit him again, though Loren saw it coming and prevented it again.

"Sorry friend," he said sincerely. "Can't let you go there."

"You will not speak of my mother!" R'dek raged, his face dark with fury. "You will not defile her memory with your filthy words! She burned to death, trapped in her own home with her infant daughter rather than let any such as you lay hands on her! Filthy dog!! Whore's son!!" This was followed by another succession of truly vile sounding swears in R'dek's native tongue and finished with another accurately delivered mouthful of spittle.

"R'dek..." Rodne said quietly, imploring, because as furious as his lover plainly was, Rodne could not help seeing also that he was in greater distress, pain even, than he had ever seen. Rodne wanted to take him away from this man, who was only making the pain worse, for all that R'dek seemed to want to stay. R'dek remained with his back to him, however, seemingly caught in a spell of rage and resentment woven by their prisoner, who, it seemed, was not so powerless for all that he was bound and tethered.

"R'dek," Li'bet's voice held something different from Rodne's, something subtly commanding, and this broke the spell, for R'dek shuddered at her speaking of his name. "That's enough," she said, her tone neither reproving nor commending, but not to be ignored. Now, when Rodne reached out to take R'dek's hand he came, though he stood mutely at Rodne's side, his face blank.

"Just trying to help out," the prisoner said disingenuously, shrugging as though it did not hurt in the least, though with a recently disjointed shoulder, Rodne knew that it must.

"If you are sincere in that desire," Li'bet said in a cold, intractable voice which made it clear that she knew he was not, "then you will give us answers to the questions we have asked. Will others come to rescue you, and if so, how many and when may we expect them? Our new friends tell us that we can make no honest deals with your people, but I will tell you frankly that we have no wish to make war with your people, and if they will be satisfied with your return, promising to leave us in peace, then I would make that deal."

Teleya, Rodne noted, frowned at this, but she kept silent. It was possible that she had never seen any village gain an advantage such as this. The prisoner's answer, however, lent strength to Teyla's earlier assertion, and to R'dek characterization of the raiders as well. 

"No one," the man said after a long moment. "No one will be coming to rescue me, and there will be no ransom paid either. We don't do that. And the fact that I've been captured," the man's mouth twisted, and there was suddenly an expression of such bitterness on his face, Rodne was shocked to see it. "The fact that I've been captured means that I'm no longer worthy to be a raider, much less their leader. I've lost my Honor," Rodne heard the weight of the word on the man's tongue, and wondered at it's meaning. "And once that's gone there's no getting it back."

Li'bet's expression softened at these words, but there was only pity in her gaze and Rodne saw that this wounded the man as R'dek's vilest insults had not.

"So it would seem that you're ours now," she said thoughtfully, shaking her head. "Not that I have any idea what to do with you. We don't even know your name," she finished with a sorrowful shake of her head.

"You can call me Shef'hred," the prisoner said. "And it doesn't really matter what you do with me." He shrugged again, and this time he didn't try to hide his wince.

A sound from the lake shore now called Rodne's attention to the fact that the boats bearing the women, elders and young children were at last coming ashore, on the sandy stretch of beach near Hallen and Meera's hut rather than at the now nonexistent dock. They were being met by family members as they came in, some with jubilation, some with sorrow. Before long there were shouts and cries coming from that direction, as villagers who had suffered losses came to learn of the prisoner and, like R'dek, appeared to wish to unleash their anger and grief upon him. At a nod from Li'bet, Ml'lar and Marak'm stepped forward to stop them, and Li'bet came to stand beside them. 

"My friends," she said solemnly. "I know you grieve, and would have justice from our prisoner, but I pray you, take this time now to spend with your families. Give yourselves the space of a day or two to temper your feelings, knowing that the justice you will seek by then will have a more sober quality."

"My Yanos is dead!" cried a woman's voice, broken with grief. "My Emmat lies wounded! What justice is there for that? What recompense? I say he who deals in death should know it for himself!" Hearing these words, many in the small crowed voiced their approval and agreement loudly.

"Renna," Li'bet stepped forward to take the grieving woman's hands in her own, pleading. "I beg you, my good friend, my sister, has there not been enough death dealt out today, that we must cause more? I swear to you, on my man's grave, that the prisoner will face justice, but I will brook no acts of retribution. No man or woman ever had a loved one returned by that means, and no heart was ever granted peace by such acts either, though you may long for it now. Go to your son, Renna , and tell him that you love him still. See that he will live and heal and cherish him, and let not your hearts be poisoned by thirst for revenge. Please..."

There was a tense moment, and then Renna dissolved into sobs, collapsing on Li'bet's shoulder until others from the handful of grieving women gathered round and supported her, and each other. Many black and hateful looks were cast in the direction of the prisoner, but the crowd eventually departed and Rodne and the guarding spearmen all relaxed. Shef'hred did too, though he tried to hide it. 

"You should have let them have him," R'dek muttered darkly. "They would have shown him some real justice." Indeed, Rodne reflected, those women would had torn Shef'hred to bits with their bare hands. Slowly.

"Is that what you would have, toolmaker?" Li'bet said, and Rodne was surprised by the sharpness of her tone. It had to have been, he reflected, a terrible and long day for her as well. "Would you have the grieving mothers of Lakeside stain their own hands with blood as well? Do you think that will give them peace, rather than add fuel to their nightmares?"

For a moment, to Rodne's dismay, it seemed that R'dek had an argument for her, but his eyes were full of hurt, anger and confusion, and after a moment he only muttered a short curse and stormed off, limping painfully as he went, back in the direction of the firepit , without uttering another word. Rodne ran after him, calling his name. Lakeside had won her battle, Rodne reflected unhappily as he hurried after his wounded lover, but she had lost something too, something precious, and quite possibly irredeemable.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things fall apart. Badly.

Rodne caught up with his lover quickly enough, but the man seemed disinclined to speak, for all that he was obviously in pain. Rodne was able to guide him to sit on one of the logs near the firepit and felt enormous gratitude to see Caresn hurrying up to join them. R'dek's leggings were by now stained with both fresh and dried blood and Caresn took one look at it before directing Rodne to keep R'dek where he was and hastening to his hut to gather his supplies.

He returned shortly and knelt at R'dek's side to clean and treat his injury in silence. R'dek suffered in silence as well, sharply drawing in a breath from time to time but uttering no other sound. Caresn stood when he was done, and now Rodne could see how exhausted the healer was, and how he grieved as well, for every injured man or woman who had come to him today who he had not been able to save.

"I don't suppose I need to waste my breath," Caresn said tiredly, "tellin' you what you should and shouldn't do to see that you heal properly. You're a smart lad, and you'll do as you please, but I don't imagine that Turtur will be so obliging if you let your wound get poisoned again." 

"Not gonna happen," Rodne said, fearfully clutching at R'dek's shoulders. "Not gonna let it."

"Aye," Caresn replied, letting a weary smile grace his features. "I believe it. I'm told that there's food for everyone laid out by the bachelor's lodge, if you're inclined to eat." Caresn didn't sound as if he was, though Rodne was sure he ought to eat something -they all ought to.

"If... if you wanna just hang out here, I could go get some," he offered, feeling the need to help his two friends terribly, though he hardly knew how.

R'dek didn't answer, staring off towards the lake -towards where their prisoner lay bound- without a word. Caresn, however, nodded after a moment's consideration.

"Thank you Rodne," he said eventually. "That'd be lovely, and if you look just inside the door to my hut there's some baskets you could use to carry things."

Rodne did just that and a little while later he had returned with a basket filled with bread, fruit, smoked duck meat, and cheese. Caresn started in slowly and seemed to find his apatite as he went along, but R'dek had to be coaxed into every bite. For his part, Rodne was suddenly remembering how little breakfast he'd had very early this morning, and here it was late afternoon already and, now that he had a moment to think about it, he realized that he was famished.

It was only with the utmost restraint that Rodne didn't eat through all of the food he had bought all by himself right away, and when he saw that all that was left on the bit of hide he'd set the food on were a couple of pieces of bread and an apple he figured that he probably ought to go and get some more. When he stood to go, however, gathering up the empty basket again, Caresn stood too.

"That'll do me for now," he said, "and I probably ought to go look in on the wounded folks again. Most have likely gone back to their huts with their families by now, but it's best that I check." The bachelor's lodge was on the way to the snow-bark tree grove, where the shelter for the wounded had been set up, so Caresn walked with him part way, leaving Rodne off at where the food was laid out. To Rodne's disappointment, there was not near so much food now as there had been when he first came around, but Rinta , who was overseeing the food, let him know that there was a large batch of wild rice and herbs that would be done soon if he wanted to wait. That, of course, was a no-brainer.

Rodne picked through the crumbs of cheese and hard cooked eggs left as he waited, reflecting that however screwed up things were in some respects, he _was_ still alive, _most_ of the residents of Lakeside were safe, and the cheese was still very good, so it couldn't be considered a total loss. He paid no attention to the strident voices he heard arguing not too far off at first, but then he realized that they were both familiar voices, and that he'd never heard them arguing before.

"Li'bet agreed, we should go," Loren's voice was saying, in a tone that suggested that this was not the first time he'd said this.

"Aye, likely because she knew you'd up and go whether she agreed or no," Caresn's voice countered, sounding even more tired and stressed.

"Or, possibly because she knows it's a good idea," Loren persisted. "We've got them on the run. We can wipe them out for once and for all if we follow after them tonight and hit them when they're down."

"Or you could walk right into a bunch of really angry raiders with nothing left to lose, and get slaughtered," Caresn said, "when they'd have been perfectly happy to ride off and lick their wounds in solitude, and never return to these parts again."

"Caresn..." Loren's voice was strained with over-tested patience and Rodne crept closer, knowing perfectly well how impolite eavesdropping is, but going anyway. "You're a healer. I get that, and I get that your priorities are to keep people safe and not to take risks, but this just isn't your area of expertise."

"And it is yours?" Rodne could see them now, and Caresn was throwing up his hands in exasperation as he spoke. "You've never killed anything that didn't have four legs or wings before today."

"It just makes sense, Caresn," Loren's tone was becoming increasingly exasperated, pacing up and down, his hands clenched in fists. "If you're hunting a wolf, and you wound it, you _don't_ assume that it will admit defeat at that point and wander off quietly by itself. On the contrary, they become even more dangerous then, because they're desperate. That's why you _have_ to make sure you've finished them off."

"They're not animals!" Caresn was shouting, and Rodne concluded that he could not possibly be eavesdropping at this point because half the village was hearing this now. "They're people, not wolves, even if they're fairly unpleasant people, and speaking of them as if they were... I'm sorry, but it's wrong, and it's going to lead to mistakes, just like the one you're making now."

"For the Gods' sake," Loren hissed, "are you _trying_ to jinx us?"

"What!?" Caresn, for all that he communed with 'spirits' in his healing work, couldn't really be said to be a superstitious man, much to Rodne's relief, but Loren, like all hunters and fishermen, could be terribly superstitious at times.

"Look," Loren said. "We're going, whether you like it or not. Your options are to wish us luck, or to just please, shut up. Either way, we won't be gone long, honestly, Caresn."

Evidently, Caresn couldn't decide what to do, because now all he did was to bury his fingers in his hair, as though he wished to pull it out.

"You'll see," Loren continued, as if he had a chance in hell of convincing Caresn of anything at this point. "When morning comes, everything will be fine. Really."

If these words were meant to set Caresn at ease, they seemed to have the opposite effect. For a moment Rodne thought that the healer was actually going to collapse where he stood, and he had gone dead white, his eyes wide and... terrified.

"Don't say that!" Caresn cried, clutching the front of Loren's vest with both hands. "Gods above, ye mustn't say that, of all things!"

"Caresn? What the hell?" Loren was clearly confused and tried to shake him off. "All I said was..."

"Don't!" cried Caresn, clinging tenaciously, and looking to Rodne like he was fighting off tears. "Just... don't... don't say another word to me till you come back. I know I can't stop you, just... _please_ come back to me love... Please...."

Loren only shook his head and pulled Caresn in for an embrace, and Rodne crept away. He didn't stop by the bachelor's lodge to get any wild rice on his way back to the fire circle either. He didn't feel hungry any more. R'dek had eaten the rest of the bread and was finishing off the apple when he returned, which was somewhat encouraging, he thought. He sat heavily on the ground by R'dek's feet, letting his head rest on his knees.

"Sorry," he mumbled when was startled out of his reverie by R'dek tossing his apple core away. "Did you want me to bring back some more food? I... kind of forgot."

R'dek's hand came to rest on his shoulder and Rodne looked up to meet R'dek's inquiring gaze, hiding nothing of his confusion and misery. "I do not require further food, Rodne," Radek said, "but I would know what has unsettled you so?"

"What hasn't?" Rodne replied, throwing up his hands then letting his head fall to rest in them. "Caresn was right," he muttered.

"What about?" R'dek asked, his hand still firm on Rodne's shoulder.

"He and Loren, they were fighting. I heard them when I went to get more food," Rodne said. "Loren wants to... well he's going, with a few of the hunters, to chase down the last of the raiders and 'finish them off'."

"Seems like a good idea to me," R'dek said.

"Are you kidding?" Rodne raised his head abruptly, looking at R'dek in alarm. "It's a terrible idea! It's inviting trouble is what it is. We beat them. They ran away! Why, by all the Gods, can't we leave it at that. Haven't we lost enough people already?"

"No!" R'dek's hand was off his shoulder and the anger was back, as though it had never been far from his thoughts. "It will never be enough, until every one of them is dead. Otherwise we will never be finished with losing people, with being afraid, and I, for one, have had more than enough of all those things!"

"Um," Rodne began to counter, torn between the evident foolishness of arguing with Radek when he was in such a mood and the wrongness of letting the remark pass. "Not that I disagree with you about the whole 'having enough' thing, but R'dek, we can't possibly kill every one of the raiders. There must be hundreds upon hundreds of bands like the one we fought today and, you know, there must be settlements somewhere with women and children raiders, and we can't just slaughter them all. That... that would be wrong."

"Wrong?!" R'dek was standing now, fists clenched and bristling with outrage. "Never before have I taken you for a fool, Rodne," he said, "but if you truly believe that, then you _are_ a fool, and a naive one. Will you stand here wringing your hands over the 'wrongness' of slaughtering these beasts while they return to this village to wreak their havoc again and again and again? They will not be stopped, they will not be humbled save by death, and I will not hesitate to give it to them -not for a second!"

"Starting with out prisoner, eh?" Rodne accused, smarting at being called a fool. "Because killing bound and helpless prisoners, that's the way to bring about peace, right?"

"Tell me how keeping him alive aids in our cause?" R'dek retorted. "All he does is eat our food -the food he came to steal, now being delivered to him by our own people- and laugh at our foolishness. He mocks us; he mocks us!! And takes freely what he came to take by force."

"So, what..." Rodne snapped angrily. "We should starve him to death? There's the way to prove how civilized we are."

"Yes!" R'dek rounded on him, all but spitting the words in his fury. "Let him die, little by little. Let the widows curse him, let the children laugh at him, let the dogs piss on him, let him be _humbled_ and his pride crushed; let him suffer, slowly, and then let him die! That would be true justice!"

The viciousness of R'dek's words left Rodne stunned, and now the pain behind them was clear to him. Suddenly all of Rodne's annoyance and outrage evaporated in the face of his lover's distress. "R'dek," he said, beseeching. "That's not justice. It's not right and... and, it's not you. You're... you're better than that, and all this... all this anger and hatred... It's not right for you... It's hurting you..."

Rodne's sudden change of manner seemed to confuse R'dek at first, and Rodne watched a welter of emotions battle on R'dek's features, but what emerged at the finish was not pleasant. He turned to Rodne with narrowed, angry eyes and Rodne felt his heart sink, even before R'dek spoke.

"And what do you know of what is 'right' for me?" he accused. "You have known me two summers out of forty that I have lived. You know _nothing_ of who I am!"

"Apparently not," Rodne said quietly, feeling his heart starting to break. There was no other word for it. "I sort of thought I did, though."

"Of course you did." R'dek's scorn cut like a knife. "Everyone likes the nice _little_ R'dek. Weak but useful R'dek; helpless but clever R'dek, who makes such fine tools, though he would not hurt a fly. This is who you think I am, yes?"

"Not... not exactly," Rodne attempted, feeling somewhat weak and helpless himself at the moment.

"R'dek the fighter, R'dek the killer, he is not so easy to love, is he?"

"What? No... I mean, that's not how it is at all..." Rodne was struggling to his feet but R'dek was already turning to go.

"I thought as much," R'dek said, striding away, not even looking back.

"Wait... please, R'dek..." Rodne implored, but it was useless. R'dek was gone. Rodne sat again, heavily, on one of the firepit logs and stared after his departing lover, or perhaps ex-lover. He thought he would cry, maybe, but it was too big for that, so Rodne only sat, staring into the distance, and wondered how victory could taste so much like ashes.

***

So many things had happened in the day already, but there was still a considerable measure of daylight yet and much to be done. Eventually Rodne went to take up all the trip lines he had laid, stacking all the stakes neatly and carefully coiling the many lengths of line. He had some offers of help as he worked, but he refused them. Rodne felt like working alone. How proud he had been, he recalled, setting these triplines up, of how clever he was, and how well they would confound the enemy. 

Well, they most certainly had done that, Rodne reflected unhappily, and they had helped Lakeside's defenders immeasurably in their dealing out of death. It meant that Rodne's hands were as red with the raiders' blood as anyone else, and while he had thought nothing of what this would mean as he had laid his plans, now Rodne was not at all sure that he was happy to have any man's blood on his hands. It made him feel a little sick, and sad in a way he had not expected.

Once or twice he caught sight of R'dek, helping Hallen and a crew of some of Lakeside's stronger men haul all the dead horses from the south side of the village into a pile where they would be burned tomorrow. Caresn would, no doubt, be displeased if he knew, but it paled in the greater scheme of things, and Rodne doubted that there was anything to be done about it anyhow. Later he heard that when they'd finished with the south side R'dek had offered to help the crew on the north, but that Hallen had refused his help and told him to go home. Hearing that, Rodne had known that they really were among family here in Lakeside, and it was an unexpected, warm feeling.

He was working at the south entrance when the half dozen hunters set out on their mission. The men working out in the fields, clearing horses' and men's bodies, cheered them on, but Rodne remained mute. He wondered, unhappily, if he would ever see Loren or Marak'm or Sitakhus -soon to be a father- or Ml'lar or any of the others again, but he said nothing and returned to his work. 

There was more food being served at the bachelor's lodge when Rodne finished taking down the last of the triplines. A few of them he'd found had blood on them -Lakesider blood, raider blood or horse blood, he didn't know and he didn't care. He'd bundled those up separately and placed them in the firepit when he was done. Accordingly, he didn't have so much appetite for dinner, though he did make his way through a bowl of wild rice and herbs, and a strip of dried venison.

Carson came, after a little while, to sit beside Rodne on the grass mats laid around the food in front of the bachelor's lodge. They ate together in silence, Rodne casting guilty glances in Caresn's direction from time to time because he knew the nature of Caresn's woes but Caresn didn't know his. If Caresn noticed, he didn't say anything.

After dinner Rodne spent a little time helping one of the three families whose huts had been damaged by the flaming arrows the raiders had sent into the village. Two had only had the roof damaged, but one had lost most of one side as well as the roof, and the family was moving in with relatives and needed help collecting their belongings from their ruined home. The man, Kubia, had been wounded in the fight, but still tried to help, and half of Rodne's job ended up being to keep him from doing any heavy lifting.

Rodne did some digging around in the ruins too, however, and found one of their children's toys, which seemed to be very precious, and earned him a sticky and tearful hug, both from the girl and her mother. After that he was more kinds of filthy than he had ever been in his life and so went down to the lake shore to bathe and find that more than half the village felt the need as well.

Removing his stained, singed tunic and then taking it into the water with him, Rodne immersed himself in the cool waters of the lake and let them carry away the dirt and dust, the soot and stickiness, and the sweat, tears and blood from this long and momentous day. All around him, waist or neck or knee deep in the lake's forgiving waters others -families, couples and those like himself, alone yet not alone- labored to the same end, and Rodne felt himself a part of this community, for all that he had seen himself as separate for so much of his life. He had sweated, toiled and shed blood with the people of Lakeside in their defense; he was one of them now as much as if he had been born there.

He met Li'bet on the beach when he came out and she lent him the heavy woven flax cloth she'd been using so that he could dry himself. They said little, and it was strangely easy to completely ignore the fact that both of them, along with nearly everyone else there, was naked. Li'bet knew better than to ask how Rodne was and Rodne knew better than to ask her what she thought about Loren's hunting party. She did pause to lay a hand on his shoulder as they parted, saying only, "Thank you for everything you've done today, Rodne. It won't be forgotten."

He could only offer her a wan, half smile in return, but he knew she understood. Li'bet, in her wisdom, had always understood him, from the very beginning, and some day he'd tell her how grateful he was for that.

A number of people were sitting around the fire when Rodne headed back to Caresn's hut to find a fresh loincloth and tunic. The one he'd washed in the lake he laid on the roof of Caresn's hut to dry. Then he returned from the hut with clean garb and the flask of lightning water. He found Caresn sitting by the fire with the others, too troubled or restless to sleep as yet, and passed him the lightning water. Caresn took it gratefully.

Rodne had not failed to notice, while he'd been in Caresn's hut, that half the bedding had been removed from the pallet where he and R'dek had been sleeping, and now he could see, in the distant light from the fire, a lone figure sitting hunched under the wingseed tree. So that was it, Rodne thought with sorrow, taking another swallow of the lightning water and wishing it could dull the pain in his heart. It seemed they were finished.

Caresn followed his gaze to where R'dek sat under the wingseed tree, and then glanced back at Rodne, the misery undoubtedly clear in his face. The reflected sorrow and profound understanding in the healer's gaze nearly had him undone, but Rodne wasn't quite ready to let go yet, and so only turned back to stare wretchedly into the fire.

They'd all thought to be celebrating tonight -either that or picking up the ruins of their village, but it seemed they'd avoided the latter fate. No one, however, seemed to be in a celebratory mood, whether for mourning their own losses, or pondering, as Rodne was, what it meant to have taken part in the killing of another human being, even in defense. Sitting in silence would not have been bearable, however, and so there was singing, sad and solemn songs that everyone knew much too well.

There were tears that came with the singing, especially when Teleya, to everyone's surprise, lifted her own voice in a song whose words no one could understand, but which nonetheless carried the profoundest feeling that left no one untouched. Rodne saw the tears on Caresn's face, reflected in the firelight, and found himself, without thought, laying an arm over his friend's shoulders. Caresn responded in kind, and Rodne felt a little of the aching loneliness in his heart ease just a tiny bit.

Caresn retired a little while later, and a short while after that Rodne followed him. The figure huddled under the wingseed tree had changed positions some time back, so that it seemed he might be sleeping, or at least lying down. Rodne wanted nothing more than to lie beside him, but he knew he would not be welcome and so crawled into the depleted furs on his guest bed in Caresn's hut alone. He and R'dek had been sharing that bed for more than a moon now, and R'dek's scent remained, for all that it was cold and a little stale.

It would be the same in his cave now, Rodne reflected miserably, and soon enough his lover's scent would fade from there entirely. Would R'dek make himself a hut in Lakeside, Rodne wondered, or find another cave, or worse still, decide to return to his traveling and leave them all for good? Considering any of those eventualities cut into Rodne's heart like a knife, finally bringing the tears that he had kept at bay for so long. He muffled his sobs in the furs that held his lover's fading scent and hoped that Caresn might not be awake to hear him. Caresn needed no more miseries in his life right now.

If Caresn slept through Rodne's heartbroken weeping, however, it was likely because the day had left him exhausted, and it was not so different for Rodne. Sleep finally overtook him in his grief, and that was a small mercy at least.

***


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A storm comes to Lakeside.

The crack of thunder, close and nearly deafening, woke Rodne abruptly. He was sitting upright in the bed even as he was waking, blinking the sleep out of his wide, startled eyes, when the second sound cut through his awareness. It was a scream, high and piercing and terrified, and it was R'dek's voice.

"R'dek!" he cried in alarm, dashing from the bed out the door to receive yet another shock, as he was instantly drenched in an icy cold deluge of rain. The skies had opened, it seemed, and rain was pouring down in torrents over the village, the occasional flash of lighting painting the falling water silver as it fell. The lightning also revealed the wingseed tree, standing unharmed and this set Rodne's heart at ease from his first fear, that R'dek, or the tree beneath which he slept had been struck by lightning.

Standing under the deluge in only his loincloth, Rodne was already beginning to feel chilled, and hesitated, wondering if he should grab more clothing or something to keep the rain off before going to find R'dek, though he also felt some sense of urgency about getting to R'dek right now. 

"Go on ahead!" Caresn's voice, as welcome as it had ever been, called out to Rodne. "I'll bring furs and something to keep the rain off and I'll be there in a heartbeat."

Rodne needed no more encouragement, dashing out into the pouring rain, slipping on mud and wet grass as he went, and not caring at all. He skidded to his knees at the place where the occasional flashes of lightning revealed his lover to be, huddled at the foot of the tree, shaking and drenched with rain.

"R'dek, oh gods, R'dek..." Rodne cried, gathering the man into his arms. "I'm here, I'm here; you're okay, I've got you..."

The nagging worry that R'dek would still be angry and refuse him vanished the instant Rodne felt R'dek wrap his arms around Rodne and cling to him with desperate strength. His whole body was wracked with sobs and shook with cold and shock and Rodne pulled him as close as he could, rocking him in his arms and speaking broken, soothing words even as R'dek continued to babble in a terrified stream of his native language in between his sobs.

Caresn's arrival was heralded by a sudden and unexpected cessation of the rain, as the healer draped them with a large piece of stiffened hide which served to shelter all three of them when Caresn crawled under to join them. Rodne felt the warm, coarse hair of a musk-ox hide fall over his shoulders and R'dek's a moment later and then Caresn's arms came around both of them, adding his own warmth and comfort.

Rodne had some idea of what evil dream might have visited R'dek on this night, and when his lover began to speak a few words in a language he understood, Rodne felt even surer of it.

"The blood..." R'dek sobbed. "Gods, so much blood... so much... never be free of it... never..."

Rodne's heart ached, but even this was so much better than how he'd felt when he'd thought R'dek was leaving him. "It's just a dream, R'dek, just a dream," he comforted, "and I've got you. I've got you. It's gonna be okay..."

"My father..." R'dek began and then choked on the words, but Rodne was sure now that he knew the nature of the dream. 

"Shhh, shhh, I know," he said, running his hand over R'dek's soaking wet hair, pulling him in to weep on Rodne's shoulder. "It's okay now, it's okay..."

"You're safe now, love," Caresn added gently, "but you'd be a bit safer, also warmer and dryer, if you could come in from the rain. D'ye think you could do that?" 

Rodne felt R'dek sniffle and nod against his shoulder and a moment later he loosened his grip on Rodne a little. It was a bit of a struggle, but the three of them finally got up onto their feet and slowly moving in the direction of Caresn's hut, Caresn continuing to shelter from the pouring rain them under the large and unwieldy chunk of hide.

"You lads alright?" a voice called over the rain from a nearby hut. "Need any help?"

"Aye, we're fine, Kimma," Caresn called back. "Thank you just the same."

Rodne steered R'dek over to their bed once they made it to Caresn's hut and he collapsed there, still shivering and sobbing a little. Rodne found something to dry him with from the bed while Caresn built up the fire and then, came over to dry him -as Rodne had entirely forgotten himself and was dripping a bit- then settled an enormous fleece over both of them.

They sat in silence as the fire slowly warmed the hut and R'dek's sobs slowed, Rodne's hand moving in soothing circles over his back. After some time had passed, R'dek raised his head to meet Rodne's gaze in the dim light. "Rodne?" he murmured.

"Right here lover," Rodne said softly, placing a gentle kiss on R'dek's forehead.

"I am... I am so sorry... what I said yesterday..." R'dek's face was still wet with tears and more fell as he spoke.

"S'okay," Rodne said, brushing the tears from R'dek's face. "It was... you scared me pretty bad," he confessed finally, "but it's okay now. We're... we're okay now, right?"

For an answer R'dek hugged Rodne close, burying his face against Rodne's neck as he nodded and wept anew.

"Then it doesn't matter," Rodne said, his voice a little rough. "It doesn't matter. We're okay, we're okay... Shhh, we're all okay now."

Rodne was aware of Caresn moving a little closer now, one hand coming to rest on R'dek's back and one on Rodne's. "I know it may seem hard," he said, "but it will help if you can speak of your dream, lad."

"I know," R'dek said, lifting his head to reveal his tear streaked face again. "Can... can I get some water please?"

"Aye, of course," Caresn said, rising to comply as Rodne and R'dek resettled themselves comfortably, leaning against the wall of the hut and wrapped in Caresn's fleece.

"Rodne knows of this dream," R'dek began when he had drunk a measure of water from the flask Caresn handed him, and Rodne shook his head, murmuring with dismay. "It is from when I was a boy, when raiders came to my village and killed my family... and usually the dream is only of what truly happened."

"Which is horrible enough," Rodne interjected, pulling R'dek closer, to lay in his arms.

"It... it was," R'dek said hesitantly, "and usually the dream ends with how I saw... I saw my father murdered, and how his blood fell on me... where I was hiding."

"Gods above," Caresn said, aghast.

"But the dream did not finish there, this time," R'dek said, shaking his head, his voice growing unsteady again. "This time... after the raiders left... he spoke to me... my father, with the blood still flowing from his wounds..." R'dek was weeping again and Rodne felt a tightness in his own throat as he held his lover.

"He... he took me in his hands," R'dek said, speaking through his tears, "and he began to weep, tears... tears of blood on his face, and said to me, 'my son, my son, you are poisoned...'" R'dek's words trailed off as his weeping overwhelmed them again, and Rodne rocked him gently in his arms, waiting for R'dek to continue when he could.

"And... and I looked down and saw that my... my hands were red with blood..." R'dek choked out. "And then he... he touched my heart... and I could see it... I could see it, laying in his hands... but it was... it was black... _black_..." Once more wracked with sobs, R'dek shook in Rodne's arms and Rodne felt his own tears falling, unable to hold them back.

"And I could... I could feel it, when I woke," R'dek continued, though he could barely make himself understood for weeping, and he lifted his hands to claw at his chest, as if he wished to tear his own heart out. "It _was_ black... with hatred and anger and... and vengeance... I could feel it..."

"No... no, no, no, no, no..." Rodne reached up to draw R'dek's hands down, holding them fast in his own even as he wept himself. "You have a good heart, you do! You... you have a... a kind and a gentle heart, and I... I love it... I love you... You have a good heart, R'dek, you do... I know it..."

"You want to listen to your lover's words, lad," Caresn said now, his voice soft and gentle as he laid a hand over R'dek's troubled heart. "And listen to mine as well." Caresn rose now, finding a bundle of sweetgrass by the fire, he kindled one end so that it smoked and carried the smoking bundle over to where R'dek sat in Rodne's arms. 

"Ye've let the evil dream out with your words," he said, passing the sweet smelling smoke over R'dek's body, "and now we'll send it away for good..." Caresn gestured with the smoking bundle of sweetgrass , chanting for a moment in his old language and then striding over to open the ox hide flap of his doorway, seeming to send something out into the rainy night.

"But... it was my father," R'dek finally said unsteadily as Caresn returned to sit beside them. "He is not an evil spirit, is he?"

"Nay, he's not," Caresn agreed, "but there was one in you, that he came to warn you about. If you don't let the evil into you again, the next time you dream of him, it's likely you'll see that he's at peace."

R'dek nodded, his tears slowly subsiding. "I can feel it," he said softly. "Already I can feel it."

"That's a fine thing then," Caresn said with a gently smile, laying a hand on R'dek's arm, and Rodne bent his head to place kisses on his lover's face. "But it's likely you'll need to do some mending work to assure that he stays so."

R'dek nodded. "I understand," he said solemnly. "And I know what I must do. You will help me?" he asked turning to Rodne.

"Of course I will," Rodne answered, thinking how foolish it was to make such a blanket promise, and how it didn't matter because he would do anything for R'dek. "Anything."

R'dek turned himself now so that he could wrap Rodne in his arms, enclosing him in an affectionate and grateful embrace. Thus enclosed, Rodne felt the horrors of his earlier fears, of returning to a life of loneliness, diminish and fade, and felt his own measure of gratitude. After a bit, however, he also began to feel some fatigue, from a day of many labors and traumas, and a half a night of not very good sleep, and he felt R'dek's grip on him loosen as R'dek too began to succumb to his exhaustion.

Caresn helped lay more furs over them as they settled down into the bed, and then banked the fire and returned to his own bed, and Rodne paused to reflect that Caresn still carried his own burden of worry for a lover whose fate remained unknown for now. Rodne lifted his head to speak Caresn's name in the darkened hut.

"Aye, lad?" the healer replied.

"You... you'll be okay too... and if there's anything you need, you know..." he offered tentatively.

"Aye, luv, I know," Caresn answered, and Rodne could hear the smile in his voice. Sleep came quickly after that.

 

**** 

 

The loud crack of thunder brought Li'bet fully awake, though the low rumbles that had preceded it had inserted themselves into her awareness even as she slept. She slept very lightly these days, naturally, but it was her usual practice to be aware of the weather, as she often left weaving projects outside her hut and sometimes they wanted bringing in or protecting from the rain. Running the usual inventory of what was where through her mind, Li'bet quickly came to recall that she, like the other villagers, had put away most everything away inside her hut, in preparation for their invasion.

She'd even taken down the large set of warps and weights that she generally kept over a large, horizontal branch of an acorn tree just behind her hut. Replacing them would be a matter of many hours of rather tedious labor, but that meant that there was definitely nothing outside to be ruined by the rain. It was a moment before she realized, just as she was beginning to fall back to sleep, that it was not some _thing_ that had been left out in the rain, but some _one_.

It took her only a few moments to throw on a tunic and gather what she needed. A flax fiber cloth to dry him, a sheepskin with the wool still on to keep him warm, a large, stiff oxhide to keep him dry all were deftly rolled into a bundle and tucked under her arm as she donned her rain cape -made of finely stitched muskox intestine- and headed out to rescue their prisoner from the rain.

The rain was so heavy, she'd never have kept a lamp alight, but she made her way easily by memory, occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning. The hide draped lump that stood up and revealed itself to be Demery, the fisherman who'd agreed to keep watch over the prisoner for the night, greeted her politely and with a little surprise. 

"Has he made any complaint about being left out in the rain?" she asked him, nodding over at the prisoner.

"Hasn't said a word, headwoman," Demery answered.

"How do you know he's still alive?" Li'bet inquired, only half kidding.

"Heard him cough a minute ago," said the guard.

"Ah," replied Li'bet. "Well, I'd like to improve his situation a bit. You can make sure he behaves himself while I do."

Demery nodded and Li'bet headed over to see to the prisoner -to see Shef'hred. The frequent flashes of lightning revealed him, curled in a tight ball, lying at the base of the pole where he'd been tied. When Li'bet dropped to one knee beside him, she could hear in his breath that he was shaking. She shook her head in shame as she unrolled her bundle, extracting the ox hide first to toss it over the top of the waist high pole above them. This made a small, rudimentary shelter, which she improved hastily with some bits of thong and rocks to weight and stabilize the corners.

Shef'hred shook himself a little, when he realized that the rain wasn't falling on him any more, then looked up in startlement when he felt her take the flax cloth to his back and shoulders, towelling the wetness away briskly. When she'd finished with that -tousling his hair into an amusing sort of disorder, she laid the sheepskin over him, making sure that he was well covered and that it wouldn't slip off by accident, as -with his hands bound behind his back- Shef'hred would not be able to set it back on himself again. "Is that better?" she asked when she had finished.

"Um... yeah," Shef'hred said with honest confusion. "Care to tell me why you're bothering? Not that I'm not grateful or anything..."

Li'bet knelt back and gave an amused smile, letting him know that she was not at all offended. "If we'd wanted you dead," she answered him frankly, "the hunters would have seen to that yesterday. Since we don't, it rather behooves us to prevent you from starving to death or dying of a chill before we decide what to do with you."

"So you haven't decided yet?" Shef'hred asked, carefully keeping his tone light, though Li'bet could hear the strain of anxiety hidden there.

"No, we haven't," Li'bet answered him honestly. "You're quite the conundrum, Shef'hred, particularly considering that we've never had a prisoner before."

"What about slaves?" Shef'hred asked, as though he were not enquiring about his own possible fate.

"I'm afraid we've never had them here either," Li'bet answered, playing along and letting herself sound a little apologetic, as though this was an admission of how backwards and unsophisticated her village was. "And I doubt we'll be selling you off to anyone else. I don't think we'd know who to ask, and I can't imagine what we'd want in trade. We do pretty well here, and don't really need much."

"Yeah, well," Shef'hred answered after a moment in which Li'bet could see him attempting to conceal his relief. "Guess I wouldn't know what to do with me either, then."

"I'm glad you can see our predicament," Li'bet said a bit sardonically as she stood. "But I'm going to go sleep on it for now, and maybe you could do the same."

"Yeah," Shef'hred said with vaguely bitter snort of humor. "Guess I will." He closed his eyes then, as though preparing to do just that and Li'bet turned to go. She was just nodding her farewell to Demery when she heard him call out. 

"Headwoman," he said, a little awkwardly. "Um... thanks, for... you know..."

"You're very welcome," Li'bet said, catching an amused look from Demery. "And good dreams come to you, Shef'hred." 

Demery had not lost anyone or anything in the raid, and so Li'bet knew he harboured no particular ill will against their prisoner, but she could also see that he thought she was being kinder than necessary. Maybe she was, she reflected, but she'd have never been able to sleep knowing he was lying out in the rain, cold and alone. She still didn't know what they'd do with him, but she'd seen a little of the real man in him just now, and it gave her food for thought.

She was in less of a hurry as she returned to her hut, pausing as she walked across the village green to see the few huddled groups of families who'd chosen to keep vigil over the bodies of their fallen loved ones, their small lamps flickering in the gusts of storm blown wind. There would be burials tomorrow, and they'd be burning the bodies of the fallen raiders and their horses as well, assuming the rain ended tonight, as she suspected it would. Late summer storms tended to be brief affairs, and already she could tell that the rain was diminishing, becoming less forceful and more gentle.

After tomorrow, life in Lakeside would, perforce, return to its normal routines, more or less. Late summer was a busy time, with fruits and grains to bring in to harvest, and food of all sorts to be preserved for the winter. They also had a dock to rebuild, even as the fishermen would be busily fishing and many others would be out in boats gathering the wild rice that was ready to harvest now, as well as hunting the migratory waterfowl that came to the lake each year. It was probably a good thing, Li'bet thought as she entered her hut, shedding her wet outer garments, that there was so much work for everyone, for anyone left idle would surely be haunted by violence and horror of their battle against the raiders.

Keeping everyone busy would keeps minds focused on other things, and that was good, she thought, settling in to her warm bed, but those thoughts and memories would not lie dormant forever. The people of Lakeside, Li'bet knew, would be changed forever by these events, just as she was, and she wondered, as she drifted off to sleep, how their lives would change, and what she could do to assure that those changes would be for the better, and not for the worse.

***


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hunters come home.

The new day dawned fair and clear, just as Li'bet had thought it would, heralded with the symphony of birdsong that had woken her. Drawing a long breath of the morning air, Li'bet scented how the night's storm had cleaned it, washing away the stench of blood and fear and fire that had hung over the village at the close of the previous day. The storm had been a gift, she thought, without question.

Such beneficent gifts aside, however, Li'bet knew that there were still clouds hanging over this day. Loren and his party of hunters would or would not return today, bringing tidings fair or ill, and there were the raider bodies to be disposed of, and their own dead to be laid to rest. It would be a day of reckoning, as the fishermen, herders, bakers and others in the village would come to realize that this trusted companion, coworker or partner would never again be there to lend the support or unique skills that others had come to depend upon. Today was the day they would really begin to notice just who and what they had lost, and the pain that many had not noted yesterday would be coming home today.

Li'bet fortified herself with a good breakfast, therefore, and dressed herself in some of her finer garb, out of respect for those lost, and to remind others of her leadership, as was sometimes necessary. Most days Li'bet was perfectly happy to be Li'bet the weaver, rather than Headwoman Li'bet, occupying herself in her day's labors no differently than anyone else. Other days, however, she knew that Lakeside needed it's leader, and today would, without doubt, be one of those days.

She began by facing what lay practically at her doorstep, solemnly greeting the families keeping vigil over the fallen, and even as she stepped out onto the green she saw another family arrive, grieving and bearing the body of Nevin, one of the hunters, who'd been struck in the belly with an arrow and had died during the night. She came and shared her sorrow with his woman and brother and his two daughters, then did likewise with the other families gathered there. A party of laborers had gone out a little earlier and begun digging graves up on the hillside north of the village where they laid their dead, and these fallen would be laid there at sunset this evening.

She found Caresn standing at the perimeter when she finished her condolences with the families of the dead. The healer looked tired and defeated. He'd come, having only just heard about Nevin, and although Li'bet knew he'd told the hunter's family that there was little to be done, the healer still felt bad to hear that he had finally succumbed. Li'bet drew him away from the unhappy scene and offered him a warm hug, which he accepted gratefully.

She listened attentively as he shared with her how Rodne and R'dek had come to quarrel last night, and how the storm, and R'dek's evil dream had, it seemed, brought them back together again. They were both still sleeping, he told her, but he himself had been up since dawn, uneasy with worry over Loren and the more seriously wounded from yesterday. Nevin's fate he had just learned, and another -a fisherman named Arvid, looked to join him within a day or two, but another for whom he'd feared the worst looked more hopeful this morning. Li'bet encouraged him to look on this success rather than the other failures, and he gave her a sad but grateful smile.

"I know you've the right of it," he said, "but I'll not be able to think on anything but Loren and the hunters until they've returned, and all I can seem to do is worry."

Li'bet laid a hand on the healer's shoulder, knowing better than to offer assurances about the future. She worried too, but she knew how it was between their healer and lead hunter, and knew nothing short of seeing Loren and his company appear on the south road would bring Caresn comfort... and that gave her an idea.

"Have you seen Yinte this morning?" she asked Caresn.

Caresn told her that he thought he'd seen the lad over in the grove of snow-bark trees, taking down the shelter they'd erected there for the wounded, and so they walked there together. Li'bet spotted him immediately when they came to the place and called him over.

"Do I recall," she asked him, "that you are a fair tree climber?" Yinte enthusiastically confirmed her recollection.

"There's a big acorn tree on the south way into town, a short walk distant," she told him. "Do you know the one I mean?"

"Sure!" he said. "I've even climbed it before."

"Why am I not surprised?" she commented to herself. "So, what I'd like you to do is to find yourself a perch, as high as you can in that acorn tree, and keep an eye on the south way. As soon as you see Loren and the hunters returning, come down as fast as you can to let us know, especially if it looks like they need any kind of help. Think you can do that?"

"You bet!" he cried, then, apparently realizing that he'd been a fairly important task, he recalled his decorum. "I mean, yes I can, Headwoman. I'll do just as you've asked."

"I know you will," she said, sending him off with a pat on the back. "And I'll let your parents know."

She watched him go, pausing to share the news of his new job with a friend as he went, so Li'bet knew he would likely have company in his vigil. It wasn't a bad idea.

"That's a right sharp notion, Li'bet," Caresn said to her as he too watched Yinte race off.

She answered him with a nod. "And not only for today," she said, considering. "I think it may be wise to keep a look-out there more often, maybe every day. It's not just friends and peaceful travelers we may be seeing coming down that road."

Caresn sadly nodded agreement. "Aye," he said, glancing anxiously to the south. "I suppose a lot of things like that'll have to change now."

Li'bet thought that possibly truer words had never been spoken.

***

Li'bet spent the rest of that morning visiting every corner of her village, touching base with each family in it, making note of who needed help and who had help to give. Hallen, who volunteered to oversee the rebuilding of the dock, surprised Li'bet by insisting that before he begin that project, he would help her replace the warp set on the acorn tree behind her hut, pointing out that he was the only person in Lakeside tall enough to do the job well. Li'bet chuckled at the truth of this and accepted, reflecting that even if the times had changed, perhaps the hearts of her people need not, and that was an encouraging thought indeed.

They were more than three quarters finished with the task, and the sun not quite at its zenith, when they heard shouting from the south side of town. They both dropped everything, leaving the remaining warps and weights to fall on the ground in a tangle, and raced to the south entrance, hoping for good news and fearing for the worst.

Yinte was there, supported by a couple of his young friends, and gulped for breath as he gave his news. "I seen 'em," he said between pants. "All six, I counted three times."

A ripple of profound relief passed through the gathered crowd, including Caresn, who looked like he was going to collapse for a moment. Rodne and R'dek were there too, though both of them looked as though they had just barely woken up. Hallen clapped Li'bet on the back and then moved though the crowd to greet his son, gathering him into a proud embrace.

"They might need help, Headwoman," Yinte continued when he had extracted himself from his father's arms. "It seemed like they were moving pretty slow, though they were all walking, and it looked like maybe two of them was helping another, but I couldn't see who it was. Sorry."

"You've no need to apologize, Yinte," Li'bet said, stepping forward to lay a hand on his shoulder. "You've done just as I asked and you've done it excellently. All of Lakeside is most grateful for the news you've bought today." Yinte beamed with pride and then quickly turned to accept the more comfortable accolades of his peers. Li'bet turned to the other attendant adults.

"I think we need not send half the village out to greet them," she suggested, "but certainly Caresn and perhaps three or four others with strong arms and backs to help our warriors home." Hallen volunteered, of course, and Meera's brother, Kerm, who frequently helped Hallen on his fishing boat, and Kadam, a tall, strong woman and excellent trapper who, Li'bet imagined, would have made a fine hunter had their taboos not forbidden it. Her cousin, Dirneer, was among those returning now.

Li'bet made herself wait. She felt it important to stand as an example for doing the more difficult thing, and right now, staying and waiting was harder, when she herself wanted to run and see who was hurt and hear what had happened as soon as possible. Instead, she stood with the women, with Ml'lar's sister and Sitakahus' woman -carrying his unborn child, and with Marakm's aunt and mother, and did not speculate or wonder. Rodne and R'dek came to stand beside her as well as they watched their greeting party head down the road.

"How are you doing this morning?" she asked them both, seeing shadowed eyes and tired looking, slumped shoulders. She also saw that they both had a tight grip on one another's hands. "Caresn said that you both had something less than a restful night?"

"Yeah," Rodne confirmed without meeting her eyes, "but... I think we got things... straightened out now, I hope." She saw R'dek squeeze Rodne's hand and some of the anxiety in Rodne's gaze dissipated. She nodded her understanding.

"It was," R'dek confirmed as well, "and I have come to see that my behavior yesterday, after the battle..." R'dek looked away then, his expression ashamed. "It was not... appropriate, and it was probably not very helpful, either... and I am sorry for it."

"R'dek," Li'bet answered him, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You placed yourself at great risk yesterday, and endured much, for all our sakes. If that left you in an... unsettled... state of mind, I think you can hardly be blamed."

"You are most understanding," R'dek said, grateful, though his shame was still evident in his voice. "I fear it will be some time before I can be so understanding with myself." Now it was Rodne squeezing R'dek's hand and Li'bet saw him pass his lover a shy smile.

Looking out at the waiting crowd now, Li'bet saw that Yinte had helped one of his smaller friends up onto his shoulders, giving the lad a perspective not quite so good as the one he'd have had up in the acorn tree, but still higher than most of the crowd. "I can see them!" he called now, and the crowd hushed to hear his news.

"I still can't see who's hurt," he said, "'cause they're keeping him in the middle, but it's not Sitakhus..." Chana, his woman, gave a cry of gratitude, thanking the Gods in a tearful voice.

"...And it's not Ml'lar, nor Marak'm..."

That narrowed it down, Li'bet thought worriedly, and beside her, she felt Rodne and R'dek grow tenser and more worried.

"It's... Gods' Eyes, I think it's Loren..."

Around her, the crowd reacted with dismay, and she saw Rodne's eyes close in pain and sorrow. R'dek's face was a mask of guilt. Li'bet wanted for there to be something she could say that would soften the blow, but there was nothing. She was as helpless as all of them and could only wait to learn more.

"I don't think it can be so serious though," the boy on Yinte's shoulders continued. "'Cause he's walking and everything, though it looks like your dad and the healer are helping him a lot... and he seems to be limping pretty bad."

That, Li'bet thought, pursing her lips, might not be too serious at all, or it might be very bad. Rodne and R'dek stood very close to one another, exchanging worried glances and likely thinking the very same thing. Please, Li'bet prayed silently, let it not be too bad. Let their finest hunter and Caresn's love be able to be made whole and healthy again, please.

Li'bet did not deny the existence of the Gods, as Rodne did, but she did not pretend to know what motivated them, or why they seemed to answer some prayers and not others. She knew she ought to be grateful to them for sparing her village, and knew that she could not have realistically asked for no one to be harmed or slain, but still, she came to wonder later, when she had learned the nature of Loren's wound, surely... surely it had not been necessary, in this one case, to have beeen so cruel.

***

"I know I'm never going to be able to hunt again, Caresn," Loren said miserably as he lay on the bed in Caresn's hut. "You don't have to tell me that this is a bit beyond anything that Turtur can deal with."

Caresn pursed his lips and said nothing, still carefully cleaning the dried blood and dirt from his lover's wound, but he knew that Loren had the truth of it. There was no denying it. 

Loren had been struck by an arrow at the back of his left foot, just above the heel, where a cord-like bit of flesh ran from the heel to the calf, severing that cord. Hunters like Loren, Caresn knew, sometimes intentionally aimed for this spot on some of their faster moving quarry, in order to slow them, but Loren had always considered it a cruel tactic and insisted that game so wounded be slaughtered quickly. Treating his lover's wound, Caresn knew a dark fear that Loren now wished that same mercy for himself.

"I'll no deny it's bad," Caresn said, "and that you're likely right about hunting, as you've been used to, but love, you must know that we'll still have need of you, always. You'll find a new place in the village, and you'll be using your skills in a different way, but your place here, love," and Caresn lifted Loren's hand to place over his own heart, "that'll never change. Never. You must know that."

"I won't live on charity," Loren said through gritted teeth. "I... I can't."

"Why would ye?" Caresn assured him. "Do ye think that hunting is the only thing you can do? It was what you were best at, aye, but you'll be best at something else now. I've no doubt of it."

"Doesn't matter what else I do," Loren said, voice subdued in misery. "I'll be pitied. I know it and you know it." He pulled his hand away from Caresn's to lay over his eyes and Caresn heard him give a little choked sound as though he were trying not to cry. "I can't live like that, Caresn, I can't..."

Caresn felt his own throat grow tight as fear and grief clouded his thoughts. "Love, love..." he plead, pulling Loren's hands away from his face to hold between his own. "You know when a man holds a longing for death in his heart, death will find him, and there's naught anyone can do to prevent it. Please love..." Caresn's voice broke now, and he felt the tears spill over onto his cheeks.

"Don't leave me, love, not like this," he wept. "I couldn't... I couldn't bear it."

Loren's face was contorted as though he were in terrible pain, his eyes screwed shut, trying to hold back the tears, but Carson saw them seeping past the tightly closed lids in spite of this and heard his love give a heartbreakingly pained little sob.

"You were right, Caresn, you were right," he choked miserably. "We should never have gone. It was a cursed venture, and if we'd listened to you... If I'd listened to you..."

"Oh love," Caresn lifted the weeping hunter to hold him in his arms, rocking him gently and murmuring soft comforts in his own broken voice. "Ye didn't know, ye couldn't, and I didn't know either. Not really. If I'd had a vision I'd have said, but I didn't... it wasn't. It was just a lover's worries, just my own fretful heart at the end of a terrible day... No one could have known. No one..."

Helpless to do otherwise, Loren gave himself over to weeping, wrapping his arms around the healer and letting his tears fall on his shoulder. "Oh Gods, Caresn," he cried, "what'll I do? I don't know what to do..."

"Just live, my own heart," Caresn murmured, stroking a hand over Loren's hair. "Just live for today and let tomorrow sort itself. Do ye thing you can do that, love? For me, if no for yourself?"

Loren nodded against Caresn's shoulder and sniffled loudly.

"Thank you love," Caresn said, pouring his heart into his words. "Now I need to lay you down again to finish binding your wound, so you'll be able to keep that promise. Is that alright?" Loren nodded again, and Caresn gently settled him on the bed, placing a tender kiss on his forehead.

Caresn set to work with skillful efficiently then, dressing the wound with a poultice of mustard and healing herbs bound with honey, then wrapping the foot and ankle with a complex binding to hold the joint immobile. It was the best he could do, but as he worked Caresn could not help seeing the awful severed cord of flesh in his lover's foot, and thinking on what it meant. It meant that Loren would surely never walk freely again, nor run nor climb, and he feared terribly that if Loren, a man of such physicality and action, dwelt on these losses too deeply, then not even Caresn's love would be enough to entice him into wanting to live now.

***


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sorry tale and a funeral.

Even as they had seen Loren, braced on either side by Caresn and Hallen, with their own eyes as he entered the village, Rodne and R'dek had exchanged quick glances and known they were of one accord. They had raced off then, to gather whatever of their own belongings (and the things of Caresn's which they were making use of, like his flask of lightning water) remained in Caresn's hut, and carried then over to the wingseed tree. Caresn and Loren would be needing their privacy, that was obvious enough, even for Rodne, and maybe he and R'dek could use a little too, such as it could be had beneath the wingseed tree, for themselves.

They'd already hung R'dek's soaking wet bedding to dry in the branches of the tree, and later they'd find Aberam, the tanner, to borrow from him some hides to make a proper shelter for themselves, but for now they would join some of the returning hunters at the firepit, to hear their tale. Loren, of course, was with Caresn, and Sitakhus had gone immediately off with Chana, as Dirneer had gone with his cousin to be with his old mother, who'd had a hard couple of days. Lienan, who had been Nevin's brother, had gone off as well, to be with his brother's family, and that left Marak'm, Ml'lar and Gefeir, who was had gotten a minor arrow wound -a long gash on his arm- and was now having it cleaned and bandaged by Meera.

Trinka and Kimma had come with fresh bread and other food for the returning warriors, and R'dek passed them the flask of lightning water as soon as they had found a place on one of the logs around the fire pit. People gathered as the three hunters ate, many bringing their own food, for it was about the right time time for a midday meal, and waited patiently to hear their accounts. Rodne could not help to notice, however, that none of the hunters seemed to be all that keen to begin.

It was Ml'lar, first fortifying himself with a shockingly long draught of the lightning water, who finally made a start, and it was clear from his look that the tale he had to tell was not a pleasant one. Little by little, the crowd of gathered villagers had come to see how the exciting and uplifting story they'd been hoping for was not what they were going to hear, and they'd grown more subdued and sober as they waited, so that by now everyone was quiet.

"I don't want to have to tell this story more than once," Ml'lar begun unhappily, his voice roughened by the lightning water. "And there's parts of it... that aren't fit for youngsters." He shuddered. "If I never ever speak of the things I saw in that village last night, I'll be happier for it."

"Loren said it was a cursed venture," Marak'm muttered, taking his own swig of lightning water. "And I'd say he had the right of it."

"How cursed could it be," of course it was Kvena'ah who had the temerity to ask such a question, "if you've all made it back in one piece, with no raiders at your heels?"

"Loren's not in one piece," Gefeir muttered miserably. "Fucking raider arrow cut his foot cord... the bastards."

Even Rodne knew what that meant, and beside him he heard R'dek moan in sorrow, lowering his face into his hands. The people of Lakeside reacted with sorrow as well, for Loren was much beloved, and his hunting prowess storied. Stories were the only place Loren would be hunting now, Rodne thought sadly to himself, putting a comforting arm around R'dek's shoulders.

"That was just the sorry end to a sorry misadventure," Ml'lar said. "Things seemed pretty hopeful to start with. We followed the raiders' trail clearly to the Twin Groves village, and it was easy enough to see they'd been moving fast. We figured they were scared, and it wouldn't take too much to scare them away from these lands for good." He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. "We didn't even bother to ask ourselves what might have happened in Twin Groves."

"What did happen in Twin Groves?" someone asked.

Ml'lar just looked a little sick and reached for the flask. "We're not really sure," Marak'm answered. "But we think that maybe the raiders killed all the men, maybe some of the older boys too."

"If the villagers tried to resist them," this was Teleya, whom Rodne had not seen arrive, but who stood now, beside R'non, not far from where the three hunters sat, "then the raiders may well have done just that. It is not an uncommon practice."

Rodne heard murmurs of horror from all around him, and some voices thanking the Gods for having spared them. "Yeah, so maybe that's what had happened," Marak'm continued. "Cause when we got there and spied around for a bit, all we saw was women, babes and elders. The raiders seemed to be getting ready to leave, and maybe take some of the women with them, as slaves, but they weren't going to leave till morning, and so we figured we'd wait till dark and then, you know, rescue them. We thought we'd be big heroes." Marak'm gave a painfully bitter bark of laughter at that, and reached out a hand for the flask. Rodne could already see that this flask of lightning water wasn't going to last the night, possibly not even the tale.

"So we waited," Ml'lar said, picking up the tale himself again. "Most of the raiders took one or two of the women back to their huts when it got dark, and we figured that was a good thing, because they'd be, you know, distracted. And if we'd had any doubts about what was going down, one of the raiders, I guess he was supposed to be keeping watch, but he had one of the village women with him too, he was sitting by their central fire, so we could see what he was doing, clear as day." Ml'lar made a face, both of distaste, and scorn for the raiders' foolishness.

"Yeah, that seemed pretty stupid to us," Marak'm said, "and it was. But we were a little stupid too, not to guess that those women, they had their own plan." All three of the hunters looked a little pale now, Rodne noticed, and the flask was passed among them once again.

"They were witches," Gefeir muttered darkly. "No natural woman would do that to a man. It's... it's sick..."

"What did they do?" someone, Rodne thought maybe it was young Deban, asked. Ml'lar shook his head.

"Nothing suited for young ears," he said grimly, "and I'll not speak of it here. It's enough for now to say that those raiders would have been far better off if we'd attacked them. In the end all but two or three were dead... and they none of them died well."

"They were not witches," Teleya's voice carried over the stunned silence. "Only women half mad with grief and rage. That I have seen before as well... and I too wish I had never seen such a thing."

Rodne, for his own part, had recently seen how a previously gentle soul could be transformed by such traumas, and understood those women far too well. He also knew, with sorrow, that they, like R'dek, would most likely be plagued by regret and self loathing when they woke to what they had done, and Rodne wondered what would be the eventual fate of the women of Twin Groves.

"Witches or women," Gefeir growled. "I am never, ever returning to that place. It's cursed."

"I think that perhaps I will," Teleya said solemnly. "They will need help, these women, and if I can lend it, I shall do so."

"You'd be right about their needing help," Marak'm said. "The place was pretty badly trashed, from what we could see, but we didn't go in. I'm not sure it would have been safe for any man that night."

"Probably smart," R'non put in.

"Yeah," Ml'lar. "We took one look at what was going on and... Gods' blood, they were dancing around the fire with... with..." he shook his head, unable to go on. "Anyhow, it sure looked unsafe to me."

"There wasn't really anything for us to do anyway," Marak'm said. "Obviously these women didn't need rescuing, and all the raiders we'd come to scare away were either dead or fled, so we decided to head back. We didn't bother making any camp even to rest a little, because after what we'd seen no one much wanted to sleep either. Maybe if we had, the last bunch of retreating raiders wouldn't have found us, but maybe... maybe it really was a cursed venture, and they would have found us no matter what we did."

"It was evil luck," Ml'lar concurred, "many times over. Evil luck that we came to cross their path, as they'd fled in a panic and were most likely lost, and evil luck that their arrows struck where they did. We struck a blow of our own, but we did not stay to see if we had killed our enemy or merely wounded him. We had wounded of our own and wanted only to take ourselves home. So we did." Ml'lat tipped the lightning water flask back one last time, extracting the last drop from within and then let it fall. The flask was empty and the woeful tale finished.

"It was those witches, or women, whatever they were, that cursed us," Gefein grumbled. "I'll bet they cursed every man within a day's journey of that place."

"It is quite possible that they did," Teleya's voice held a quiet warning, "but do not blame them for your mischance. You were advised that your plan was unwise, yet you undertook it in spite of this."

A tense silence fell over the crowd at the fire pit, and Rodne could smell the foul smoke from the burning bodies in the fields south of the village, drifting over them as the wind shifted. Teleya's reproval was just, but daring nonetheless, given the circumstances.

"We did," said Ml'lar, the oldest and steadiest of the three hunters sitting at the firepit, "and we have paid a price for our foolishness. I, for one, intend to take a lesson from it, you can be sure. To pay such a price and not to take a lesson would be compounding my foolishness ten-fold."

Gefein seemed to take this as a slight and stood with a short, bitten off curse, pushing his way through the crowd and striding away.

"I'll go after him," Marak'm said. "He just needs some time to cool off."

"Take care of him," Rodne heard Li'bet say from somewhere in the crowd. "Take care of each other, and do not let the darkness poison your hearts."

Wise words, Rodne thought, glancing at R'dek worriedly. His lover looked a little stricken and Rodne pulled him close.

"His heart is black, just as mine was," R'dek whispered. "And he suffers. They must understand that."

"I'm pretty sure they do," Rodne said, watching the hunters go, then he turned to lay an arm around R'dek's shoulders, guiding him away from the firepit along with the rest of the crowd. "C'mon," he encouraged. "Let's go get those hides and put up our tent. If we don't argue about it too much we can have it all set up before sundown."

***

 

In fact, they only 'debated' a little over the overall design approach, and once they had settled on that Rodne and R'dek were entirely of one mind, working together like two parts of a greater whole. Working so well, they got finished well before sundown and R'dek had time to put together a stew of rabbit meat he'd gotten from Kvena'ah and beets and onions Rodne had gotten from Emat's mother. Then Radek set the stew pot at the edge of the fire to simmer slowly as they went, with everyone else, to the burial.

 

The villagers made a procession from the green, carrying the bodies of their dead, every free hand bearing a torch or rushlight so that their progress could be seen in a line of twinkling lights running from the village to the hillside to the north. The graves, fourteen of them, had been dug earlier, and so now each family laid their own loved one into their final bed of earth, leaving gifts of food and items of personal significance with them.

Though Caresn had surely argued against it, R'dek saw that Loren had made the journey to be present as well, and with the help of Sitakhus and Marak'm he came to stand beside Nevin's and then Yarred's graves, leaving some token with each of the fallen hunters. When he was done, his companions helped him walk carefully back to stand with the other hunters, who closed around him like heard beasts around one of their calves. Would the wounded hunter see this as genuine caring or pity, R'dek wondered, and hoped it would be the former.

R'dek, for his part, had his own offering to make, and now stepped silently up to Trigan's grave. There he left his leather sling and a single stone, kneeling at the graveside to speak a little prayer he had learned as a child before he rejoined Rodne. "I am finished with it," he said, inclining his head in the direction of the grave and the things he had left there. "I have learned my lesson, I hope, but I trust you will remind me of it if need be?"

For an answer, Rodne pulled him into a warm embrace, and R'dek could feel how he had taken another step towards setting Rodne's heart at ease. He knew he had wounded Rodne horribly with his words yesterday, and knew that for all that Rodne had offered his forgiveness so quickly, he would still be some time in healing. R'dek pledged to himself most solemnly that he would do whatever he could to speed that healing.

They stood in silence with all of the the villagers as Caresn passed a brazier, burning sweet herbs and resins, and spoke a blessing over each grave. Then Li'bet spoke a few words about sacrifice and memory and loss, and when she had finished each family member dropped a handful of soil into the open graves of their loved one. Most departed then, though some stayed to finish filling in the graves and others remained at the gravesides, grieving still and keeping vigil.

R'dek expected Rodne to depart them, but first he wandered back toward an older section of the burial ground, to a grave marked by a single raised stone with a reed basket bound to it. The basket had been finely made, though now it was worn and weathered by many years exposure to the elements. Rodne paused here, and then placed in the basket a handful of the sweet, red raspberries R'dek knew he loved so well... and then R'dek realized whose grave this must be.

"She... she really liked them a lot," Rodne said, sounding a little self conscious, but also sad, and strangely regretful. R'dek found himself at Rodne's side before he even knew he had moved, holding him close, hugging him hard and Rodne responded in kind.

"How is it," R'dek murmured, voice full of sorrow and affection, "that you have kept your heart so well hidden for so long? Does no one know of it but me?"

"And Caresn," Rodne said, sniffling a little and trying to hid it, "and um..." Rodne nodded his head to the left, indicating a figure standing in the torchlit darkness. It was Headwoman Li'bet, her eyes sad and bright with tears, but a small smile graced her lips as she gazed upon Rodne and R'dek. She stepped forward when she saw Rodne let his arms fall away from R'dek, and placed a kiss, almost like a blessing, on Rodne's forehead.

In response, Rodne gathered her into his arms for just a moment, and R'dek found himself following suit. She sniffled and wiped her eyes when they'd parted, and thanked them both, though for what she did not make clear. Maybe it was for a lot of things, R'dek thought.

The three of them walked back to the village together in silence, though it was a pleasant, companionable one. When they arrived at the village green they paused, clasping hands before parting, and as they did Li'bet said. "Those we have said farewell to tonight would want us to remember, I think, that we here still live, and that is a thing to be celebrated. Bear that in mind this evening, my friends, and perhaps we will have a different sort of gathering soon."

Rodne and R'dek both nodded their concurrence as they parted company, but Rodne looked over his shoulder once more as they crossed the green, to see her entering her dark and empty hut. "Sometimes I wish..." Rodne said hesitantly, "that she... she had someone, you know?"

"I do know, my love," R'dek said softly, lifting his head to kiss Rodne's cheek as they walked.

There was no one by the firepit when they returned, though the coals of the banked fire still glowed welcomingly. Maneuvering it carefully with a pair of handy sticks, R'dek turned the clay pot of rabbit stew sitting at the fireside and then lifted the lid to stir it. The smell that rose from within drew Rodne like a moth to a flame and R'dek chuckled to see it, then had to smack his hand away when Rodne reached in as though to snag a bit of meat. 

"You will burn your fingers, foolish man," he said. "Run and get our bowls and some bread and perhaps Caresn and Loren will be back by then and we can ask them if they would like to join us."

"Oh fine," Rodne said with mock petulance, trotting off to do just as R'dek had asked. Loren and Caresn, assisted by Ml'lar, were just coming in to view as Rodne returned.

"If you would care to eat," R'dek offered as Loren sat heavily on one of the firepit logs, "I have enough here for all of us." By now R'dek had shifted the stewpot to a flat rock at the edge of the fire and he lifted the lid again so that the stew could be served.

"Damn, that does smell good," Ml'lar said. "You've convinced me. Do I need to get my own bowl?"

"I believe I've enough extra," Caresn said with a smile, "even with the ones that these lads seem to have made off with." Caresn indicated Rodne and the bowls he carried.

"Just borrowing!" Rodne objected. "I happen to have plenty of my own dishes, thank you very much. They just weren't one of the things I happened to consider when it turned out that I needed to carry my _dying and delirious_ lover all the way to Lakeside all of a sudden!"

"While I do not recall all of that journey," R'dek commented, ladling stew into Rodne's bowl, "I do recall walking on my own at least some of the way, yes?"

Rodne gave R'dek a narrow eyed look as he sat and blew on his stew to cool it. "Walking, yes, after a fashion," he replied. "But 'on your own'? Not so much."

"Mm... that's fair, I suppose," R'dek said as he ladled up more stew for Caresn. "How much for you?" he asked.

Caresn glanced up at where the two hunters sat, passing the question on to them. "I'll take as much as you can give me," Ml'lar offered. "I think I'm still missing last night's dinner. What about you, friend?" he inquired of Loren. Loren only shrugged.

"Dunno if I'm all that hungry," he said.

"You need to eat something, love," Caresn said, "and this smells delicious, R'dek."

R'dek thanked the healer, serving up a full bowl for Ml'lar, a half bowl for Loren, a nearly full one for Caresn and a like one for himself. He sat next to Rodne on the log and took a moment to anticipate his meal, inhaling the fragrance and letting the heat seep through the bowl to warm his fingers, for the evening had turned cool as the sun set. In the silence they all could hear Caresn quietly speak a short phrase in his old language.

"What?" asked Rodne, his mouth full.

"Oh," Caresn said, looking a bit self conscious. "It's... it's just a blessing my folks used to say over meals. It's to say we're thankful for our food today and that we'll be thankful for it tomorrow as well. I don't know why it just came to me tonight. I haven't thought of it in ages."

"It's not a bad thing," R'dek replied, "to take a moment before eating, to be grateful. When I was young we said..." and R'dek found the old words on his lips as though he still said them every day. "It means... 'today the food is plentiful and good, may it always be so'."

"My mom would smack me if I ever started eating before we said thanks to the Gods for our dinner each night," Ml'lar said with a chuckle of fond remembrance. "I haven't bothered since the day she died, but you know, when I have a kid, I'll probably start again. I don't know if I even believe in the Gods, but it just seems right."

"Don't get me wrong, food is definitely important," Rodne put in, scraping the bottom of his bowl as if to illustrate his point. "But if I'm feeling grateful for something, it's usually something bigger, like, say, for being alive after a day like yesterday? Or for, um, other people being alive, you know?"

"I do know, my love," R'dek said softly, leaning his shoulder against Rodne's and feeling a warmth all though him that had nothing to do with the warmth of his food.

"Aye," Caresn affirmed softly, laying his hand over Loren's. "I do as well."

R'dek saw Loren lay his partially eaten stew aside to turn his hand and curl his fingers around Caresn's. "I'm working on it," he said quietly, his voice still full of loss and sorrow. "I... I really am... it's just hard..."

"I know love," Caresn acknowledged. "I know."

R'dek's heart ached for the hunter's loss, trying to imagine having a thing so fundamental to what he did taken from him. His gaze traveled down to Loren's injured foot, bound tightly to restrict it's movement, and found his naturally analytical mind considering the mechanics of what had been damaged there. Idly, he wondered if a partial remedy might be devised through some external construction, and he let his mind wander with the idea. Ideas of this nature came to him at times, and perhaps one would come for this. He hoped it might, but for now he would keep his own council.

***


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the funeral -an affirmation of life. (Which is to say, more sex.)

They finished their meal in silence, Rodne and Ml'lar helping themselves to seconds and Caresn finally coaxing Loren into finishing his portion. They cleaned their dishes when they had finished and then parted company, Ml'lar to the bachelor's lodge, Caresn and Loren to Caresn's hut and Rodne and R'dek to their new shelter beneath the wingseed tree.

"I am most grateful that you are alive as well, you know," R'dek said to Rodne when they had settled into their nest-like pile of bedding. "And if you are so inclined, I would very much like to demonstrate just how much...?"

"Gods!" Rodne cried, grabbing R'dek and pulling him close. "There are no words in any language for how much I love you." And then he grabbed R'dek's head with both hands and kissed him like he was never going to kiss anyone ever again.

R'dek rolled with it, absorbed it and then surged back, giving as good as he'd gotten. Rodne moaned loudly in response, becoming suddenly acquiescent and pliant in R'dek's arms. R'dek took control with pleasure, rolling to lie atop Rodne and kissing his way along his lover's jaw, down his throat, and across his chest to lick and suck his nipples. Oh how he loved to feel Rodne's nipples firm into pebble hardness under his tongue, to hear Rodne's voice harshly whispering swears and pleas as he writhed beneath R'dek.

Straddling his lover, R'dek intentionally ground his hips against Rodne's to feel their hard cocks press against one another through their loin clothes. Those were definitely going to have to go. R'dek's nimble fingers made short work of them, casting them aside thoughtlessly as he indulged himself entirely in the feel of all of Rodne's naked flesh against all of his. The indulgence quickly became reciprocal, as Rodne's hands roamed over his whole body, stroking and touching.

R'dek shuddered and groaned softly to feel Rodne's fingers on his nipples, teasing them to hardness and making his whole body quiver with need. R'dek wanted... everything. He wanted to taste Rodne, wanted to feel Rodne's mouth on him, wanted to touch and be touched, but most of all...

"Want you to fuck me..." R'dek moaned. "Want to feel you inside me... moving inside me deep... so deep..."

"Gods," Rodne cried, pulling R'dek down so that he could lick and suck at the base of R'dek's throat. "But... but, I'll only... only do it on one condition..." Rodne could barely keep his mouth off R'dek long enough to speak, and R'dek had to pull himself away to ask his condition and to hear the answer.

"What," he panted. "What is your condition?"

"You agree," Rodne said, clearly missing the distraction of being able to taste R'dek, "to let me make you feel better than you've ever, ever, felt in your life?"

R'dek laughed then, letting himself fall back onto Rodne's wide, solid body and kissing him enthusiastically. "Of course," R'dek said between kisses. "I would expect nothing less."

There was some scrambling around in the bedding then, to find the pot of goose fat, but they both _knew_ they'd bought it from Caresn's and eventually it was discovered, tucked between some tree roots. "Where do you want to be?" Rodne asked, murmuring the question into R'dek's ear while his tongue traced its edges.

"Like this," R'dek answered him, rolling to lie on his back and then pulling Rodne forward to kneel between his open thighs. It was such a joy to see Rodne's face light up as he knelt over R'dek, his eyes glittering in anticipation. R'dek let himself relax, surrendering to the moment, to Rodne, who would absolutely do as he promised.

Looking up at his lover, R'dek admired how a sliver of light from the half moon outside, slipping in between two of the hides, illuminated half his face -a long strip crossing his wide, pale chest as well. A fair breeze had come up as the night deepened, making the oxhides they'd secured around them bow and flutter, but they were sheltered from it, and the breeze only sang them a gentle song as it moved through the leaves of the wingseed tree above them.

Rodne bent to kiss his lover then, bracing his body over R'dek's with strong arms on either side of him. He kissed R'dek's mouth, thrusting his tongue deeply, in a promise of things to come, and then moved down to kiss his jaw, his throat. Rodne sucked on each of R'dek's nipples vigorously but briefly so that R'dek had to gasp sharply and thrust his hips, and then continued moving.

It was inevitable that Rodne's mouth would find his cock but no amount of expectation could overshadow the reality of it when it came. Rodne savored, breathing over it first, then brushing his lips along its length. It seemed astonishing to R'dek that he had introduced Rodne to these sorts of pleasures a little over a year ago, for Rodne had taken to them as a bird takes to song. R'dek felt the urge to sing a little himself, as he felt Rodne's mouth close over the head of his cock, tongue teasing at the edge of his foreskin, and he surrendered to it, opening his throat to cry out wordlessly.

Rodne soothed him with hands stroking his body, the insides of his thighs and R'dek writhed in pleasure, thrusting his hips helplessly and grasping at the furs beneath them. After only a little while Rodne left off sucking, which could soon have lead to very quick conclusion, but continued to lick and kiss R'dek's cock, teasing R'dek's sensitive flesh with the tip of his tongue. He moved his hands now, one caressing his balls, the other slipping further back... and suddenly very slippery.

Radek moaned and thrust his hips in anticipation, and when he lowered them again Rodne's finger was waiting, pressing its way inside him as he let his weight settle back onto it. He fell still then, save for his clutching hands in the furs, and panted, whimpering with each breath. These were the pleasures Rodne had shown him not so very long ago and it was astonishing to think how he craved them now.

No matter how many times Rodne had fucked him, however, not to mention how many times he'd fucked Rodne, his lover always took especial care with him, preparing him slowly and carefully. He was brilliant at it though, making it part of their foreplay and prolonging R'dek's pleasure every time. The finger was moving deeply now, thrusting rhythmically, and R'dek was so hard it almost hurt.

"Please..." he moaned, though he knew that Rodne would do as he wished. It seemed to please him to lick the beads of precum off the head of R'dek's cock, and to smile lecherously at R'dek when he did. R'dek could only moan wordlessly. Eventually it pleased Rodne to insert a second finger, his look of concentration and keen focus a turn-on in itself, and Rodne hummed and sighed to himself as he pressed his two digits deeply into R'dek's body.

"Damn you're tight," he murmured. "Tight and hot... Gods you are going to feel so good around my cock."

Radek whined, feeling his opening stretch around Rodne's fingers and wanting more. "Rodne... Rodne... Gods..." Radek chanted his lover's name as he was skillfully finger-fucked. "Want you," he begged. "Want you to take me; I am ready, I am... Gods please..."

"Almost..." Rodne whispered, pressing his lips to Radek's thigh. "You really are pretty tight. I know it's been a while."

"Don't care..." R'dek whined, even as he was half aware that he might regret such impatience in the morning.

"No way," Rodne replied with a feral smile. "You made a deal. I get to make you feel good... like this..." And then Rodne's clever fingers were pressing in deep... and touching that special place, the place that made R'dek feel a sort of liquid pleasure flow into his whole body. R'dek made a wordless sound of helpless bliss and gave up. Rodne was right, he had made a deal and he must let Rodne do as he pleased.

Little by little, R'dek's awareness of everything, even time, dwindled, eclipsed by the pleasure Rodne was wringing from his body. While the fingers of one hand worked deep inside him, the other teased his nipples, pinching and stroking, and Rodne's mouth continued to enjoy his cock, in small doses, keeping him poised on the very edge of climax. Even the few simple words he might use to beg Rodne for mercy were lost to R'dek now, and all he could do was writhe and moan in ecstasy.

He was aware when Rodne's two fingers in him became three, because the stretch really was noticeable, for all that Rodne had been stretching him before. It was a good stretch though, burning only briefly, and R'dek could feel the muscle relax quickly around Rodne's fingers. He was really ready now, he knew.

"Oh, yeah..." Rodne whispered, almost reverently, around his cock. "Love feeling how you open for me... how much you want it..." R'dek could only whimper his agreement.

"Can't wait to be in you..." Rodne murmured now, pulling himself up and away from R'dek, drawing his fingers out. R'dek moaned and thrust his hips, missing the contact immediately, but he knew that relief was coming soon, for Rodne was applying generous amounts of goose fat to his own rigidly hard cock -R'dek could hear it.

"Can't wait to push my hard cock inside you..." Rodne continued, maneuvering himself to kneel in the right place and taking hold of R'dek's thighs to lift them, part them... "Can't wait to feel you all around me, so tight... Gonna fuck you so good..." R'dek had his eyes shut tight, panting in anticipation.

R'dek still felt a tiny frission of fear in that first hearbeat of surrender, when Rodne's cock, hard and hot, first breached his entrance. It was in feeling that fear that R'dek could know just how deep his trust in Rodne ran, that he would let him do this, let him in like this. The fear never lasted more than a heartbeat, however, and the passing of it fired the ecstasy he felt at being penetrated. R'dek gasped, moaning out Rodne's name, but could not move, impaled as he was.

Rodne too remained still as a stone, save for his small gulping pants as he held himself arched over R'dek's body. "Oh Gods..." he finally whispered. "Nothing... nothing could ever be as good as this... R'dek... Gods..."

"Please..." R'dek gasped in a small voice, needing, desperately needing Rodne to move.

"Gods... oh gods..." Rodne moaned by way of answering him, and then drew out slightly, trembling as he moved. The spell of stillness was broken then, and R'dek arched his back, pressing himself back against Rodne, impaling himself deeper again.

"Oh fuck," Rodne nearly sobbed, thrusting deep, then thrusting again, and then finally setttling into a slow, steady rhythm. Words escaped him as he fucked R'dek, slipping out as though seeking their own freedom while Rodne's mind was elsewhere.

"So good," he chanted as he plunged his cock deep into R'dek's body again and again. "So fucking good, so tight, so hot... god you are so hot..."

For his own part, R'dek was incapable of anything but wordless cries as he felt Rodne's hard flesh moving inside him, so deep, touching him in places no one else could. He became aware, eventually, of Rodne's expression becoming focused for a moment, of his rhythm slowing briefly as he shifted his hips slightly, and then... oh by all the Gods and their misbegotten children...

The sound that left R'dek's throat was almost animal, his back arching and hips thrusting with enough force to all but lift him off the ground. It felt to R'dek as though all his blood and bones had transformed into nothing but hot, liquid pleasure, ecstasy coursing through his whole body. He was undone -nothing left of him but bliss and the delicious friction of Rodne's cock, filling him, fucking him.

"Oh yeah..." The pure joy in Rodne's voice was nearly blinding. "So beautiful... Want you to come for me now... let me... let me feel you... oh Gods so good..." Then he did it again.

No power on the Earth or in the heavens could have stopped the climax that tore it's way through R'dek then. He wailed, arched, felt the liquid pleasure within him ignite, like lightning water, immolating him from within. He felt his body thrash and convulse as though it were someone else's, as though it's previous occupant had been overcome with pleasure and was no longer really present.

This surge of ecstasy was not content with sweeping him away alone it seemed, however, for the pulses of his own body around Rodne's cock were sure to envelope him as well, and there... yes. Rodne's body had gone suddenly rigid and a fresh wave of heat was filling him, hands were grasping his body with bruising strength and a voice, pitched high to near breaking, filling his ears. Now they were one.

Now their bodies were shuddering together, lungs heaving for air giving gasping breaths together, sweat and come sticking their bodies together... R'dek knew he was back in his own body at last when he became aware that Rodne's weight on it was making it hard to breath, and he had just enough control over it to tip sideways ever so slightly so that Rodne slipped off to lie beside him. This caused Rodne's cock to slip free of him at last, and R'dek felt it as a small shock, for it had felt as though it belonged there. Weren't they really a part of one another? Hadn't they always been?

Rodne seemed to answer R'dek's unspoken question by flinging his arms around him, pulling him in close again. So it was the truth, and if they had to live out their lives in separate bodies, so much the better for being able to give each other these sorts of pleasures. R'dek decided that he could live with that.

"Love you, so much..." Rodne mumbled against R'dek's shoulder, already becoming leaden with sleep. R'dek retained the presence of mind to grope around till he found the pot of goose fat -and it's cork- and set them out of harm's way, and mop the cum off his and Rodne's bellies with someone's loincloth, and then let himself succumb as well. Falling into sleep, into Rodne's arms, sated with the very pleasures Rodne had promised, R'dek drifted off with a smile of quiet yet profound joy on his lips.

***


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Headwoman Li'bet shares her dinner.

The coals from the banked fire on her hearth gave Li'bet enough light to find the covered bowl of leftover wild rice and herbs from yesterday, and she debated building it up before she sat down to eat. She was only going to eat and then go to bed, after all. Why waste the fuel?

And yet... though she had lived alone for so very long, and had grown used to many such solitary suppers, Li'bet found herself contesting with a profound sense of loneliness tonight. Just as Rodne had gone to visit briefly at K'harien's grave after the burial ceremony, Li'bet had gone to stand for a moment at Ca'dell's, and now, though she had been without him for many years, she found that she missed him again. No, she would not dine alone tonight, but she wasn't sure where she might go.

On another night she might have found company at the firepit, or gone to visit Hallen and Meera or another family, but tonight was not a night for visitors. The families of Lakeside would be wanting only their own company tonight. Teleya and R'non, she considered, who had made their own camp among the snowbark trees, might welcome her, but she didn't really know them that well, and tonight they too might prefer each other's company alone.

There was, however, one who would also be very much alone tonight and, upon reflection, Li'bet realized that no one had likely told Shef'hred what had become of the survivors of his band. It was not happy news, but he deserved to know. The more she thought about it, the worse she felt about how the man had been kept in the dark, and about how she had not made certain that anyone had even brought him food or water. She'd had other things on her mind, yes, but as their prisoner had not really been made anyone else's responsibility, he had to be hers.

Once again Li'bet found herself gathering up things to take to the prisoner: the bowl of rice plus another bowl and a pair of spoons, and some dried fish and a couple of plums to make it a real supper, a flask of water and her summer shawl, for the night had turned cool and breezy. Outside, the village green was empty tonight, though the crushed grass where the dead had lain was evident in the light of the half moon. She crossed it quickly, skirted the lakeshore, and finally came to the place where the prisoner was being kept.

It was, in fact, R'non who was keeping watch tonight, and he'd built a small fire to keep himself company. Shef'hred was kneeling up, leaning against the post to which he was bound, and gazing absently out over the moonlit lake from under the little shelter that Li'bet had made for him the night before. She was pleased to see that tonight it was acting as a shelter against the wind, and she imagined that he was pleased to have it.

"Good evening R'non, Shef'hred," she called, from a far enough distance that the traveling warrior on guard would not be startled.

"Headwoman," R'non returned the greeting perfunctorily, looking up only briefly before returning to work using an antler straightener on a long piece of wood that would eventually become one of his arrow shafts.

"Headwoman Li'bet," the prisoner said, sitting up and breaking into a smile that Li'bet suspected was mainly artifice. "Looks like a clear one tonight; do I get to keep my roof anyhow?"

"Of course," she said, ignoring the implication that he was not to be shown the least consideration. "Have you had anything to eat today?"

"Some girl came by earlier and gave me some bread," Shef'hred answered. "And Mr Chatty here's been giving me water when I ask for it."

"Thank you, R'non," Li'bet said, sincerly, realizing that if she was going to offer food to the prisoner she needed to offer it to his guard as well. "And how about you? Have you had dinner this evening?"

"Ate earlier," R'non said, acknowledging Li'bet's thanks with the barest incline of his shaggy head.

"Excellent," Li'bet said, laying the food out and sitting. "There'll be plenty for the two of us then."

"Um..." Shef'hred's casual artifice seemed to be shaken at the sight of the food, though he did attempt to maintain it. "That looks real nice," he said, "but I'm not sure how I'm gonna eat it."

Of course, Li'bet realized with chagrin. His hands were still bound behind his back. She _could_ feed him, she supposed, but that would entail robbing the man of a significant portion of the tiny amount of dignity he had left. That seemed wrong.

"R'non," she said, reflecting. "Don't you think that we could let the prisoner have his hands bound in front now? Seeing as we have a pretty good idea that he and his people don't represent much of a threat anymore..."

R'non looked up, giving the both of them a long, assessing gaze. "Sure," he said at last, rising with astonishing grace, given his size. Li'bet stood back to give him room as he strode forward to loom over Shef'hred. "You even think about trying anything..." R'non advised darkly, brandishing the knife he would use to cut the prisoner's bonds.

"Never crossed my mind," Shef'hred said disarmingly, and would have held his hands up, Li'bet sensed, had he been able.

R'non grunted sceptically and leaned down to sever Shef'hred's wrist bindings with a quick movement. He had the man's hands captured in front of him a heartbeat later, and deftly rebound them.

"Thanks," the prisoner said brightly, grimacing in pain slightly as he rolled his shoulders to loosen them. When his gaze turned to Li'bet she saw a spark of sincere gratitude there, buried under the layers of practiced nonchalance. This uncaring attitude, Li'bet thought to herself, was something Shef'hred had taken on long ago, to hide himself even from his own people. For all that he had been their leader, she wondered if Shef'hred had been... uncomfortable among the raiders. Was it possible, she mused, that he might come to be more comfortable here?

She sat before him now, thinking that others in Lakeside might not be so trusting, even with R'non's watchful presence, but she felt no concern. Li'bet considered herself a good judge of people, and though, on the face of it, this man ought to be regarded as highly dangerous, she had no doubts that she was safe with him.

The look on Shef'hred's face, as she served him a bowl of rice and handed him a spoon, suggested that he, too, found her level of comfort with him confusing, but Li'bet only smiled and lifted her own bowl. "Good appetite to you," she offered, laying into her food with considerably more enthusiasm than she'd had a little while ago. This had been a very good idea.

"Thanks," said again, uncertain, his artifice failing him. Kindness undid him, Li'bet reflected sadly, speculating at how rare a thing that might be among the raiders. How would it be to grow up, a good man with a kind heart, among such people? Surely to survive one would have to learn to hide one's heart, and shield it carefully. Was this what she was seeing, or was it merely wishful thinking?

Eating with hands bound was a little awkward, Li'bet could see, but it had to be infinitely preferable to being fed, or worse, being made to eat like an animal without the benefit of hands at all. Shef'hred's first attempt resulted an a bit of spilled rice, but his eyes lit up as he got to tasting it.

"Hey," he said, after a couple of bites. "This is pretty good."

Li'bet laughed. "I'll be sure to tell Rinta," she said. "The mix of herbs she uses are a closely guarded secret, and here," she dropped a strip of dried fish and a plum next to his bowl. "Our healer tells us that it's healthy to have a little meat or cheese and fruit with every meal."

Shef'hred's look was disbelieving at first, but the offering remained and after a moment's consideration he picked up the plum, taking nearly half of it in one juicy bite. He tried to hide the look of pure pleasure on his face as he tasted it, looking away for a moment, but then looked up a moment later, determined curiosity in his eyes.

"You know," he said, wiping the plum juice off his chin with his arm. "I'm pretty sure this isn't the way most people treat their prisoners of war."

Li'bet shrugged. "I'm afraid it's nothing I know anything about," she said, sounding apologetic even as she smiled at him. "I don't know if I could bring myself to do it any differently."

"So..." Shef'hred's attitude grew carefully casual, "this isn't some kind of... last meal... or anything?"

LI'bet felt a little twinge of sadness in her heart to hear what Shef'hred expected, but she knew it shouldn't be so surprising. "No," she answered, shaking her head, "definitely not... but I do have some news for you... that you probably won't be pleased to hear -about the rest of your band."

Shef'hred's shoulders slumped in something like resignation and he gave her a wry sort of smile. "I did kinda wonder what you meant when you told my keeper there that 'me and my people' no longer represented much of a threat."

Li'bet nodded, her eyes sad. "We sent some hunters after your... companions, with the idea of driving them off for good, more or less." Or killing them off, but Shef'hred could figure that part for himself. He nodded, and Li'bet could see that he had.

"They followed them to Twin Groves, the village you had taken before, and had plans to attack after dark," she continued. "Apparently, however... your people would seem to have... underestimated the... determination of the women of the village." Li'bet grimaced, not sure how best to explain further.

"Just the women?" Shef'hred asked, eyes narrowed.

"My people tell me that they saw no others," she replied. "They guessed that the men had all been killed... is that what happened?"

"Not when I left." There was an unmistakable note of outrage in the raider's voice. "But Ba'ates..." he sighed, his shoulders slumping further. "Gods above, the man is such an idiot... probably a dead idiot now, I imagine."

"More than likely," Li'bet acknowledged. "My people tell me that after dark the men... your men each took women into the various huts... and that the women evidently took that opportunity to... strike back."

"Of course they did," Shef'hred sighed, raising his hand -both hands perforce- to rake fingers through his disordered hair. "Gods! I don't know how many times I told them to leave the women alone..." He let his hands drop in defeat, head bowed, and Li'bet's heart went out to him. "Did any of them get away?" he asked without raising his head.

"A few," she answered, as kindly as she could, reflecting that one of those was the one who had permanently crippled their best hunter, but there was no need to mention that now. "My people tell me that three, maybe four managed to escape, but it was dark, so they're not sure."

"Probably Fedor and a couple of his cousins," Shef'hred speculated, looking out over the lake, grieving, Li'bet thought. "He was the one smart one, but Ba'ates was older, held more sway with the others." Shef'hred looked down at his food again, but Li'bet could see that his appetite had fled.

"I am sorry," she said, meaning it as she reached over to lay a hand on his shoulder. She did not miss R'non's suddenly more alert posture as she leaned in close to the prisoner.

"No reason for you to be," Shef'hred replied darkly, shrugging her hand away and then wincing when he aggravated his injured shoulder. "They were a bunch of murderous sons-of-bitches for the most part, and you're almost certainly better off now that they're gone."

"And is that what you were too?" Li'bet asked, because she was almost certain that he wasn't and was very curious to hear what he would say.

He met her gaze directly, as though trying to fathom her intent in asking. "Had to be," was his answer, and then he picked up the piece of fish jerky, biting off a mouthfull.

The answer had been brief, but illuminating, Li'bet thought, and she felt certain that it had been true as well. That was remarkable in and of itself, for she had half expected him to play the role of a dangerous barbarian. Instead he had made a significant confession, giving up something that he had striven to hide up to now. Had she made a connection with the man? And if she had, why did the hope she felt in response seem so personal? Now Li'bet had a host of questions for herself as well as for the raider.

She thought on these questions as she finished her rice and fish, then lifted her gaze to meet the raider as she turned the plum over in her hands. "We buried our dead today," she said, without preamble. _And burned yours,_ Li'bet did not say. The man was sure to have smelled the unmistakable scent of burning flesh all day.

"The sorrow I saw on the faces of my people," she continued, "was no different than what I see on your face now, Shef'hred. Grief is grief, and it takes no account of the 'worthiness' of these lost."

"Grief doesn't change the facts either," Shef'hred answered, setting down his rice bowl which Li'bet was pleased to see had been emptied. "And the facts are that you are almost certainly better off without Ba'ates or the rest of us, and Fedor, frankly, is probably better off without me."

"Why do you say that?" Li'bet asked, drawing up a knee to rest her elbow on as she ate her plum.

"Most bands like ours are lead by someone with proven skill as a fighter or archer, or a reputation for ruthlessness," he said, wiping his fish oily fingers in the grass. "I'm an okay fighter, I guess, but mostly I was the best rider of my clan, five summers in a row. Ba'ates and Fedor and some others, I guess they thought that meant I'd make a good leader." Shef'herd gave a bitter bark of laughter. "And I guess I thought they'd make good men for my band, so it looks like we were both wrong."

And perhaps it means, Li'bet thought to herself as she finished her plum, that a good man is unlikely to succeed at doing bad things, but she wasn't going to suggest that. She doubted that Shef'hred saw himself as a good man, possibly did not know what it meant to be one.

"What would you do," she asked thoughtfully, "if we set you free now?"

"Now?" he asked, but there was no anticipatory joy in the question. His look was only haunted, fearful even, and he shook his head. "I'm a warrior who's lost his Honor. I failed to lead my men into victory, failed to choose a second I could trust, failed to keep my men alive... I've got nothing left. I might as well be a slave... or a beggar."

Li'bet felt her heart moved, for to her mind the very fact that he felt these failings made Shef'hred a very honorable man indeed, but honor apparently meant something different to him. She wondered if it would be possible to change his mind. "I'm afraid we have neither slaves nor beggars here in Lakeside," she said at last. "But we do value honor a great deal here. To us it can be gained by hard work and self sacrifice, by contributing to the well being of others. Even when honor is lost, it can be regained in that way as well."

"By working in the dirt and mucking around in fish guts?" Shef'hred's tone had grown scornful suddenly. "There's no honor in that! Honor is what you have when you can take what you like, because you are strong and they are not! Honor was my birthright, is my people's birthright, and once that Honor is broken you are nothing, less than nothing. No real man would ever wish to live that way."

"Your 'Honor' is a very strange and fragile thing, Shef'hred," Li'bet replied, undaunted by his hostile words. "Do you truly wish to die?" Her question was met at first by a moment of silence.

"I should," he said eventually, the angry arrogance in his voice vanished now, leaving only shame as he looked down on a meal that part of him seemed to think he shouldn't have eaten.

"I... I believe I would be very sorry if you did," Li'bet confessed honestly.

Shef'hred looked up at her now, revealing at last a man broken with shame and confusion. "Why?" he asked, and the great tragedy was that he really did not know why anyone would be sorry at his death.

"Because I see in you a different sort of honor," she answered, meeting his gaze directly. "Very deep within you, and much stronger than the thing you call Honor, that you believe you have lost. The sort of honor I see in you is a very rare thing in any man, and too precious to throw away so readily."

The brief flare of hope she saw in his eyes guttered and was extinguished quickly, but Li'bet had kindled her share of fires in this slow and tedious manner, and knew that patience and perseverance would be required. Shef'hred only shook his head slowly in reply to her words, then said that he was tired and would like to sleep.

Li'bet allowed how that was fair enough, gathering her dishes and helping the man draw the sheepskin she'd left him last night over his shoulders when he'd laid down. She wished him pleasant dreams as she stood to go, but before she did, he called her name.

"Headwoman Li'bet?" he said.

She dropped to crouch before him once more. "You know," she said, "I've been Headwoman Li'bet all day today, but it really is just for special occasions. I'd just as soon go by Li'bet alone, if that's alright with you."

"Li'bet, then," Shef'hred said, letting her see an honest smile. "I don't understand why you're doing it, but... I want you to know that I am... grateful for dinner... and everything. Maybe that's that 'honor' thing you claim I've got inside..."

"That is precisely that 'honor thing' that I _know_ you have inside," Li'bet said, smiling broadly. "And you are very welcome."

She bid goodnight to R'non as well then and returned home, pausing at the lakeshore to watch the half moon setting into the pool of silver it had transformed their lake into. Back in her hut, she added a few sticks to her hearthfire so that it would keep going through the night and settled into her bed, thinking that it did not seem so cold this night as it had in the past. Ca'dell had told her, long ago, that she must feel free to give her heart to another, should she find herself alone some day, but her heart had never found another that moved it... until, perhaps, now.

It seemed beyond foolish, she knew, perhaps even dangerous, and she dared not imagine what others in the village might think. The others did not know, however. They did not see him as a man, but as an enemy, and she did not know what it would take for that perception to change. Shef'hred himself, she reflected, did not see himself as much of a man just now either, but maybe these changes in perception would come together. The symmetry appealed to the weaver, and new patterns began to form in her mind's eye as she drifted off to sleep, weaving the lives of her villagers as she might a new tapestry.

***


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morning in Lakeside.

Being kissed awake by R'dek was always pleasant, Rodne mused sleepily, regardless of the scratchy beard or the disordered hair that never failed to fall into his face and tickle. This morning, however, it brought with it a host of memories, some more happy than others, and a profound sense of relief. His fight with R'dek had left Rodne deeply shaken, for all that their disagreement had lasted less than a day, for Rodne had come to assume that only death might take his lover from him, as it nearly had not so long ago.

To retrieve R'dek from Death's door only to lose him to some personal failing of his own had plunged Rodne into a terrifying depression and left him searching his soul desperately for some way to assure that it never happen again, in spite of R'dek's insistence that the failings had all been his. This didn't compute for Rodne, who knew himself to be host to scores more personal failings than R'dek could ever be.

Failings notwithstanding, however, here was R'dek, whole and healthy and in his arms, kissing his face and lips till Rodne woke enough to respond properly. When he did it was a long, sleepy kiss, that ended when R'dek's hair tickled his nose and made him sneeze.

"Good morning," R'dek said when Rodne had recovered, and Rodne sniffed, scratched his head and said, "Good morning to you too."

"I wish to bath in the lake this morning," R'dek announced. "Will you join me?"

Rodne blinked, squinting at his lover. "Is that a trick question?" he griped. "Because it's not fair to ask me trick questions before I've had any tea or breakfast, really."

"It is not a trick question," R'dek said with a grin, standing and stretching, like a cat, and making Rodne feel a little thrum of desire run though him. "But it was perhaps a foolish one." He reached down to lend Rodne a hand standing and Rodne took it. All of the toolmaker's wiry strength was evident as he hauled Rodne up onto his feet, and Rodne rejoiced to feel it. The scar was still visible on the inside of his thigh, and dark scabs were still evident here and there, but R'dek's health and strength were back, evident in the firmness of his handclasp and the ease with which he pulled Rodne's weight.

It was fairly early, and still a little chill, so they made their way to the lake wearing only loin-cloths and sharing R'dek's rabbit fur blanket to keep warm. There were a handful of people already bathing in the shallow area near the sandy beach when they got to there and not one of them even glanced their way as they arrived. Though Rodne generally held bathing to be something that one did, at most, two to four times per year, R'dek was a fastidious fellow, and had gotten Rodne into the habit of cleaning himself in this manner rather more often, especially in the summer. Having grown accustomed to dousing himself in the icy cold stream that ran near their cave on a semi regular basis, Rodne could really appreciate the calm, relatively warm waters of the lake, and this morning he hardly minded at all.

In addition, it was always a pleasure to observe R'dek, gloriously naked in the morning sunlight, ducking down in the water and then standing again so that the water streamed down over his body. He smiled to see Rodne staring at him, then shook out his wet hair, pulling away the thong that bound it. Rodne ducked himself under next, scrubbing at his face while it was under the water, then rose, shaking his head to send the water off.

"I think it is time to cut your hair again, " R'dek said as Rodne ran his fingers through it and decided he was right.

"Could trim my beard too," Rodne agreed. R'dek was unbraiding his own thinner but longer, scraggly beard to wash it. He'd braid it up again, quite neatly, when he was done here. The two of them each took handfuls of clean sand from the bottom of the lake to scrub each other's backs, and then applied more to their own hands and feet.

Closer to shore a handful of noisy children played and splashed, their mothers chatting pleasantly nearby. There was nothing to distinguish this morning from any other, save that from time to time the conversation among the mothers turned sorrowful, and that some of the children where blacking each other's faces with bits of charred wood from the burnt dock. Rodne was just rinsing the sand out of his crotch (with his back turned toward the moms and kids) when R'dek surprised him with a pinch on the ass.

Rodne yelped and went down, taking R'dek with him, the two of them making a tremendous splash, and when Rodne got his feet under him again, R'dek was kissing him.

"Sorry, could not keep my hands off," he said with a grin that held not a hint of contrition. Near the shore several of the moms had broken off in their conversations and were making appreciative noises.

"Not doing this in front of an audience," Rodne hissed, though he didn't exactly pull away from the kiss either.

"Not doing what?" R'dek inquired in an innocent tone, while at the same time stepping very close in front of Rodne, so that none of their personal bits could be seen, and then rocking his hips against Rodne's so that those very same personal bits began to throw off the influence of the cold lake water.

"This!" Rodne exclaimed, stepping back to scoop up a double handful of water and dumping it on R'dek's head. "You insatiable loon!." The women near the shore laughed and R'dek shook his head, spraying water every which way.

"That's it," Rodne announced, splashing his way to shore. "I'm going for breakfast."

R'dek followed him, of course, and they helped each other dry off and slip into the clean tunics they'd left on the shore. Once dressed, Rodne followed the scent of fresh baking bread to the ovens on the far side of the village green, and there he shamelessly abused Trinka's belief that he was some sort of agent of the Gods in order to pry from her two whole loaves of bread stuffed with wild onions and herbs, piping hot from the ovens.

The price, of course, was that he sit at the bakers' table while he and R'dek ate this delicious bread, and listen to her ramble on about her children and grandchildren, and confirm that yes, this one was was most certainly destined to be the greatest hunter Lakeside had ever known, and surely that one would be a beauty with no end of suitors, and of course the Gods had ordained that this young man would catch more fish than any other -once he was out of swaddling clothes. Rodne had to school his gaze away from R'dek as he said these things, because he kept rolling his eyes when Trinka wasn't looking and Rodne had to keep a straight face.

Brinna came after a bit with a pot of honey sweetened tea, which made it easier for Rodne to say these ridiculous things, and after he and R'dek had nearly polished off one of the loaves Li'bet came by to get one for herself, along with her own pot of tea, which she said she was going to take to the prisoner, Shef'hred. The chatter amongst the women at the ovens dropped off as she left.

"Should've given her the burnt one," Brinna finally broke the silence.

"Foolish girl!" Trinka exclaimed, standing to plant both her fists on her ample hips. "I can't give burnt bread to the headwoman! No matter who she is sharing it with."

That was the conundrum, Rodne mused, wondering if Li'bet knew how controversial her treatment of the prisoner was. No doubt she did, for the whole village was buzzing about it, but no one had any answers either.

"What do you think will be done with him?" R'dek asked softly as the women returned to work.

"No idea," Rodne said, finishing off his tea. "But Li'bet will figure something out. She's good at that."

R'dek finished his own tea in silence, looking troubled. "I need to go and see him," R'dek said finally, setting his empty cup down.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Rodne asked, quietly so that no one but R'dek could hear him.

"I... I need to face him, and... and not behave as I did before," R'dek answered hesitantly. "I know it will not be easy, but I think I must."

"Yeah, okay..." Rodne began, wondering what else to say when they were abruptly interrupted by an enormous pile of bread dough, landing on their table with a floury whump.

"Table's needed for work gentlemen," Trinka announced. "Begging your pardon, honorable Seer." She was the only one that called Rodne by this name, and Rodne would be just as pleased if no one else ever did.

"No problem," Rodne said, gathering up his second loaf of bread, thinking that, with the addition of some cheese and fruit, it would make an excellent lunch. "We were just getting ready to go ourselves, yes?" He turned to R'dek.

"Indeed," R'dek replied, turning to Trinka and the other bakers. "My thanks for a delightful breakfast, and equally delightful company, Mistress baker," he offered chivalrously. Now it was Rodne who rolled his eyes.

"If you're going by Caresn's hut...?" Kimma put in as they got up to go.

"Sure," Rodne answered.

"I've a loaf here for him and Loren," she said, handing him a hide wrapped loaf of the onion herb bread. "Please deliver our wishes for both their health when you take it to them?"

"Of course," R'dek answered with a dimpled smile. Kimma blushed and bowed her head, returning to work quickly.

"Think she's sweet on you?" Rodne asked with a smirk as they headed off.

R'dek snorted in humor. "If she is, she is out of luck," he said.

"Actually, I think she was really into Loren until recently, when it got to be obvious who he'd rather spend his time with," Rodne commented as they drew near to Caresn's hut. "You'd think she'd learn a thing or two by now."

"The heart is not always wise," R'dek remarked. "But sometimes it is very, very fortunate."

The deep affection in R'dek's pale blue eyes, and in the wide smile gracing his lips went straight to Rodne's heart and he wrapped his arm tightly around his lover's waist as they came up to the firepit, seeing Caresn and Loren there, quietly enjoying their morning tea.

"We bring salutations, and breakfast, from Trinka and the bakers," Rodne announced as they approached. Neither man looked as though they'd gotten much sleep last night, but Caresn brightened a bit at Rodne's announcement, and more as he drew close enough that he could smell the bread.

"And how is the good head baker this morning?" Caresn asked as he broke off a piece of bread for Loren and another for himself.

"Destined to have the most fortunate and popular children and grandchildren in the history of Lakeside," Rodne said, with only a little wince. Even Loren gave a ghost of a smile at this and Caresn chuckled outright.

"If she does, she'll credit you for it, lad," Caresn told him. "She tells everyone that following your advice has gotten her everything good in life."

Grimacing, Rodne laid a hand over his eyes. "Gods I wish she wouldn't do that," he said. "I have a hard enough time with people's expectations of what I can and can't do."

"I don't think anyone really expects you to work miracles, Rodne," Caresn said kindly. "And while Trinka is certainly a fine baker," he gestured with the bread, "it's also well know that she's... just a wee bit daft."

"Just a _wee_ bit," Loren remarked dryly, taking another bite of bread. The former hunter, Rodne noted, seemed to carry a sort of resigned mood today, which Rodne supposed was better than wishing he was dead, which is how he sort of looked yesterday. There was a kind of spark missing from the man, though, Rodne could not help but notice, and he wondered if it might be a hard thing to rekindle.

R'dek, Rodne now saw, was also looking thoughtfully in Loren's direction, but from his look Rodne could tell that his thoughts were elsewhere. It was a look Rodne knew well, and it meant that he was figuring something, usually something wonderfully clever. Naturally, Rodne was instantly curious, and he turned to give his lover a questioning look.

R'dek answered him with a lift of his hand, that suggested 'later' and Rodne nodded his understanding. Ideas, like fruit, often needed time to ripen before they could be shared and Rodne knew that R'dek's ideas were always worth waiting for.

"Let us put this food away," R'dek said instead, "and proceed with the business of the day. I would as soon have it done as promptly as possible."

"What's you plan then, lads?" Caresn asked, washing down his bread with a swallow of tea.

"R'dek says he wants to, ah, see the prisoner, Shef'hred," Rodne answered, glancing sidelong at R'dek.

"You said," R'dek said uncertainly, "that there was... 'mending work' for me to do, and I think it may begin there, with... with him."

"Aye, that's a good place to start," Caresn agreed, "though it won't be an easy one."

"No, I know it won't be," R'dek said with a sigh, "but it is often best to start with the hardest thing... and I won't be alone." He returned Rodne's glance, and it was filled with gratitude and trust. Rodne reached out to take his hand.

"Yeah," Rodne confirmed for Caresn and the healer nodded with approval.

"Then you'll do fine, lad," he said. "I've no doubts."

They made their farewells after that, then made short work of rigging a food cache for their bread, suspended from a branch of the wingseed tree. They walked the village's southern edge to reach the place where Shef'hred was being kept, and they walked in contemplative silence, Rodne calculating the days left before the day of balance, and R'dek probably lost in whatever it was he'd been thinking of as he gazed at Loren. Li'bet was just getting up to leave from her breakfast with Shef'hred as they arrived.

"Good morning gentlemen," she greeted them cordially. "How goes your morning?"

"It goes well, Headwoman," R'dek said with a deferential nod. "I hope yours does as well."

"It does," Li'bet answered, "but I would count it as a distinct improvement if I did not have to answer to the name 'Headwoman' any more today."

R'dek gave her a chagrined look and scuffed his feet awkwardly. "Li'bet," he said a little abashed. "I fear I still must make amends for my... ill mannered actions yesterday, both to you and... and to him." R'dek's gaze shifted to where Shef'hred knelt, still bound.

"Is that why you're here now?" she asked gently. R'dek looked down again, then nodded.

"I owe the man an apology," R'dek said, so quietly that it was barely audible. "As much or more than to you. What I did... it was not... decent."

Li'bet reached across and laid a hand on R'dek's shoulder, waiting till he looked up at her to speak. "Let no one ever say that you are not a brave man, R'dek," she said, conviction strong in her voice.

"I must be," R'dek said, looking out to where the prisoner sat, his voice quiet and fearful, "if I am to redeem myself."

Rodne saw her hand squeeze R'dek's shoulder as she left, and then the two of them approached the little 'campsite' where the prisoner and his guard were ensconced. 

***


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Toolmaker and the Raider, take two.

It was Teleya who watched over him this morning, and she now had a little shelter too, with a proper fire pit set in front of it, between her and the prisoner. She sat there now, comfortably enough, it seemed to Rodne, sipping on a cup of tea, and she greeted them as they drew near.

Rodne returned the greeting and R'dek nodded a little absently, his attention drawn to Shef'hred.

"Be advised," she said, cautious eyes on R'dek, "that I am enjoined to protect the prisoner from harm as much as I am to prevent him from harming others."

"I am not here to do harm," R'dek said, still focused on Shef'hred. "But to make peace... if I can."

Teleya tipped her head thoughtfully, glancing up at Rodne as though for confirmation and Rodne recalled that she had been witness to R'dek's earlier outburst with Shef'hred and might not know how out of character it was for him.

"He's really not usually like that, how he was the other day," Rodne explained. "He... he wasn't... himself, after the fight."

"I understand," she said after only a moment, and it seemed to Rodne that she really did. "I have too often seen men and women of a gentler disposition, forced to become fighters, to defend their homes against the raiders, as you have done, and I have seen how this can cause wounds, as serious as those made by an arrow or a knife." Her gaze was distant, and a little sad, even as she directed it to Rodne, a question in her look.

"Yeah," Rodne said. "I think maybe we both... took some hits that way." He shuddered a little, thinking of the blood stained trip lines he had thrown into the fire. "But I think maybe it hit R'dek a little harder."

Teleya nodded again. "Then your friend is on the right road, though it will not be an easy one," she said, then shifted herself to the side a little, so that there was room for two beneath her shelter. "Come, sit," she offered, patting the space on the grass mat at her side. "Take tea with me while you wait, for this should take a little time."

"Sure," Rodne replied, only a little hesitantly, sitting where she had indicated. He and R'dek both had exchanged ideas with the traveling warrior woman, but he had not really gotten to know her all that well and, to be honest, he found her just a bit intimidating. Rodne took the cup of tea she handed him with a nod of thanks, but his attention was on R'dek where he stood, nervously, before Shef'hred, clutching the fingers of one hand in his other.

"Come to give me another bath?" Shef'hred said with an uncaring smirk as he looked up at R'dek. His tone was light, laconic, but underneath Rodne had the sense of bristling defenses. The man was wary, but disguising it very well indeed.

"No," R'dek said sharply, shaking his head and letting the shame bleed from every part of him. "No, I... I am here... " R'dek shook his head again, wrapping his arms around himself in misery. "I have no words for the wrongness of what I did... how I was with you... before." He drew a long breath, searching for words or some sort.

"I... I have said to my friends that I would make peace..." he continued after a moment, Shef'hred watching him with unfeigned interest. "Though I do not know how it might be managed... with such a beginning."

Shef'hred gazed up at R'dek for a long, silent moment, and Rodne found it difficult to read his expression. The wariness still seemed present, but he also seemed to be weighing something. After a moment he bit his lip, thoughtfully, and gestured for R'dek to sit. "Maybe we could try that beginning thing again, then," he said, and then followed that with, "Have a seat, stranger. My name's Shef'hred, of the southern plains. How about you?"

Carefully, R'dek sat before the raider, nodding and opening his hands as Shef'hred had done in the traditional indication that he held no weapon. "I am R'dek, the toolmaker," he said, "once of Hostyn Mountain, but now I reside here."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Toolmaker R'dek," Shef'hred said, his formality formulaic, but not in the least mocking. "Hostyn Mountain... that's not from around here, is it?"

"No," R'dek said. "It is many leagues to the east and north. I have traveled most of my life away from that place... for reasons I think you may guess."

"Yeah..." Shef'hred said carefully, "I guess I can, and I suppose I might have done the same thing, in your place."

"But I imagine you have also traveled some distance in your life," R'dek said, carefully turning the conversation away from dangerous topics.

"Never done anything but," Shef'hred said, shrugging, then wincing, as though he had forgotten his recently disjointed shoulder. "Never really lived in a village. Couldn't understand wanting to. Waking up in the same place every day for your whole life? I still can't imagine it."

R'dek was silent for a moment, contending with something difficult, and then Rodne recognized the look on his lover's face that came when he was being brave. "Do you truly feel so much contempt for those who do?" he asked at last.

Shef'hred's look went unguarded for a moment, even Teleya noticed, Rodne saw, for she became subtly more alert. The question, it seemed, had been an unexpected one.

"I..." the raider seemed to find something distasteful in the answer he was finding. "I was taught to," he said at last.

So you don't mind eating, Rodne thought to himself, scornfully, but you have no respect for the ones who grow your food. R'dek did not drive this point home, however.

"I was taught," he said quietly, "never to strike a man who could not strike back. It seems I have strayed from these teachings, and for that... I am deeply sorry. It is my intention never to stray from them again."

"I can't say," Shef'hred replied after a thoughtful moment, "that I don't understand why... why you, ah, lost it, the other day... especially given what happened to you... to your village." Shef'hred drew a long breath, contemplating his next move in the conversation as though it were a strategy game, like the one with stones and sheep's knuckles Caresn had taught them earlier.

"I won't say that I... agree with everything I was taught, either," he finally offered. "Some things... some things I think I always knew... weren't quite right... but who I am..." the raider looked up now, his gaze forthright and challenging. "I am who I am, and I'm not going to say I'm not proud of that."

R'dek nodded slowly, conceding the point graciously, and Rodne felt a little easing in his heart. "Tell me," R'dek said, considering his own 'moves' just as Shef'hred had, "what you are the most proud of?"

Shef'hred's expression was complex, both fond and wistful, proud and a little sorrowful. "Our tribe was a large one," he said. "Our winter camp nearly as large as this village, and in our last five spring games, I was the best rider -fastest, best around obstacles, best jumper..." Shef'hred's look grew distant. "No one could beat us -Jumper and me. They used to say that it looked like we could fly... and sometimes it even felt like it."

Oh. Even Teyla noticed it, how, for a moment, Shef'hred's soul was laid absolutely bare before all of them. Rodne could tell because her eyes grew wide, and his own breath caught in his throat for a moment, as the image came to him, of the raider leader on his coal back mount, magnificent in his braids and beads and copper bands, flying... just as he said.

R'dek did not miss the significance of this moment either, and he gave it a long moment, tilting his head, his eyes growing attentive. "This will explain, perhaps," he said eventually, "your skill at falling off a horse and not breaking your neck."

"Oh hell yes," said Shef'hred, his face falling back into an easy, and sincere, smile. "Though I think that was maybe my best fall ever, the other day." Then his mood shifted back to careful, though he tried to keep his tone and smile just as easy as before. "If you saw that, uh, fall, did you... happen to notice how Jumper came out of it? My horse, I mean..."

R'dek frowned in thought for a moment. "You do not know, of course," he began, "that my eyes are not so good at any distance, so what I saw... may be inexact." Shef'hred nodded his understanding and R'dek continued. "I recall that he seemed to rise again quickly, though it may be he moved a little... unevenly, afterward, as though he might be favoring a leg. Since then... I cannot speak to his case particularly, but quite a number of horses escaped the battle and have been seen, all together in a group, several times. By the southern lake shore, mostly, I think."

Shef'hred nodded, his expression carefully neutral. "So," he said, "do you think you could tell if... whether it was broken or not, his leg, I mean?"

R'dek drew a breath. "Again, I cannot be completely certain," he replied, Shef'hred nodding once more, "but I do not think so. The horses I encountered which had broken a leg, I..." R'dek bit his lip. "I finished them."

A flicker of pain crossed Shef'hred's face. "Good," he said, voice low. "You did the right thing. Thank you." His hands, bound together on his thighs, clenched into fists and then unclenched.

"That was to have been his duty," Teleya surprised Rodne, speaking softly, as though thinking out loud. "To protect and care for his men and their mounts." Rodne thought he sensed a touch of admiration or respect in her voice.

"So," Shef'hred began again, his slightly overly hearty tone heralding a change in mood. "What about you, toolmaker? What do you take pride in?"

Rodne saw R'dek duck his head for a moment, briefly hiding a secretive sort of smile, then he lifted his head to glance at Rodne before turning back to face Shef'hred. "I am," he said, "really a very good flint knapper, and I like to take pride in all my work, but the very best piece I ever made... it won me a greater prize than I could ever have imagined."

"Sounds like a good story," Shef'hred said, shifting to rest his back against the pole to which he was bound -the closest the man could come to relaxing, Rodne guessed.

"Anything that can be made with flint, I can make," R'dek said, and Rodne knew it was not a boast. "But I prefer to make things for hunting, and tools such as knives for cooking and so forth." Shef'hred nodded and R'dek continued.

"A good cooking knife is really quite a challenge," he explained, "for you must start with a fairly large flint blank and not make any mistakes, and the best cooking knives should have a curved blade, which is not so easy to make well." 

"Sure," Shef'hred said. "I've seen 'em. The women in our camps use 'em too." He gestured the way in which such knives were used.

"Precisely," R'dek said. "So, some time ago I found the most perfect flint for a cooking knife, and worked it so very carefully for nearly half a year. When it was done I knew I had made the very finest cooking knife ever, and I thought, I will trade this for half a year's food, or some thing else of great value." R'dek laughed then and suddenly Rodne knew what it was that R'dek had traded that knife for.

"So what did you end up getting?" Shef'hred asked, playing along.

"Well it happened that, not long after I finished the knife, just four summers ago, in the very same season we are enjoying now," R'dek said, casting Rodne a merry sidelong glance. "I was traveling to some flint grounds I'd been told of, near a large lake, when my guide abandoned me in the mountains, two days or so journey south of here. I did my best to stay with the trail but, as I have mentioned, my eyes are not the best, so it happened that I took a wrong turn."

Rodne could not hide the affectionate smile that grew as R'dek told his tale. Beside him, he saw Teleya give him a curious look and Rodne just smiled and nodded in R'dek's direction. Just listen, he thought to her. You'll get it.

"I didn't know it was a wrong turn at first, of course," R'dek continued, clearly aware now that he had more audience than just Shef'hred. "But gradually it became clear to me, as the sun began to set, that I was not where I meant to be, and then the trail ended, and I saw that I had come to someone's dwelling. There was a cave as well, and it was inhabited, as it turned out, by a very rude, grouchy man, who insisted that I give him that very fine knife in exchange for a place by his fire for the night."

"Man!" Shef'hred winced sympathetically. "That sucks."

"Not so much," Rodne, no longer able to restrain himself, called out. "Seeing as how a few days later, the same rude, grouchy man went some considerable distance out of his way to save your sorry ass from getting frozen to death."

"So there you see," R'dek said with a grin, gesturing to Rodne. "Here is my great prize. And when I am at home, I can use this fine knife whenever I like, so I have not really given it up, either."

"Okay, so I have a feeling there's more to this story, yes?" Shef'hred commented with a twinkle in his eye, looking over to where Rodne sat. "Think you could introduce me to your friend, now that I guess I've heard how you met?"

R'dek beckoned him and Teleya gave him a little nod, so Rodne pushed himself to his feet and strode over to where R'dek and Shef'hred were sitting. "There is, indeed, a great deal more to the story," R'dek was saying as he sat again, "but it will not be told today. Instead, allow me to introduce you to Rodne, the stargazer."

"Saw you yesterday," Shef'hred greeted him, hands open, "but didn't get your name. Mine's Shef'hred... the rider." He gave a little satisfied smile as he spoke the name, as though he'd just now thought it up, and maybe he had. Rodne returned the open hand gesture.

"Pleased to meet you," Rodne said, not terribly convincingly, but making an effort.

"Stargazer, huh?" Shef'hred commented. "Don't think I've ever met one of those before."

"Don't know that there are any others," Rodne said, warily, not really wanting to explain his curious avocation to this possibly dangerous stranger.

"Possibly not," Shef'hred said, appearing not to take any offense at Rodne's reticence, but then, Rodne reflected, he had been introduced as 'rude and grouchy', so maybe the man wasn't expecting much. He did seem to be considering something, however. 

"You know though," Shef'hred said, frowning as he recollected something. "Some of the people in the village we came to before yours tried to tell us that there was some crazy old wizard or hermit or something that lived in a cave in the mountains nearby and who would 'protect' Lakeside... although some of them said he wasn't a hermit exactly because a few summers ago there was another guy who seemed to live there too, like some boyfr..." Shef'hred trailed off suddenly, glancing between the two of them in comprehension. "Ah," he said.

There was an awkward silence, until Rodne burst out with, "Wizard? Who in the hell is saying that I'm a _wizard?_ I mean, crazy I'll accept, hermit is more or less accurate, but _wizard?!_ "

"Rodne," R'dek attempted to mollify him. "Bear in mind that the ones saying this may have been intending to frighten the raiders away from Lakeside, or the area in general."

"Definitely," Shef'hred confirmed. "They were trying to convince us that we would be sorry we attacked their village, and if it's any consolation, we none of us believed a word of it."

"Yes, except that that's exactly what happened isn't it?" Rodne snapped, entirely unconsoled. "Gods if this gets out, I'm going to have to find another cave and keep the location secret. Do you have any idea how far people will travel to find a real 'wizard'?"

"No," R'dek and Shef'hred answered simultaneously. Rodne scowled at them both.

"I value my privacy!" Rodne protested, "and my time, and you have no idea how much I've lost to all this..." he gestured to encompass all of Lakeside and the events which had drawn them and kept them here. "Practically half the summer's observations are irretrievably lost, thanks to _your_ fondness for climbing patently unsafe trees," he pointed accusingly at R'dek, "and _your_ cultural imperative for attacking helpless villages." Rodne's condemning gaze now moved to Shef'hred. "There's no telling what this loss will mean to the sum of human knowledge."

Sure enough, Shef'hred's look seemed to say to R'dek, grouchy _and_ rude. R'dek only smiled and shrugged. Rodne scowled at both of them again.

"Right," he said, rising. "Thrilling as this little introduction has been, Aberam wants a consultation from me after lunch today, in exchange for the hides that are keeping the rain off our heads, which means that I need to go find some lunch now. You coming?" he directed at R'dek.

"Evidently so," R'dek said, rising as well. "Shef'hred, I am... truly pleased to have made your acquaintance."

"Same here, I'm sure," Shef'hred replied. "And feel free to drop in any time. I'll be, you know, right here..."

R'dek's glance to Rodne was troubled, and Rodne understood why. They couldn't go on keeping the man here, tied like this. Before very long it would amount to torture. Surely Li'bet would be thinking the same thing, though, Rodne told himself. She would find a solution.

"I would like to ask Teleya something," R'dek said, requesting that Rodne wait for a moment with a touch of his hand. It was R'non's whereabouts that he was seeking, and Teleya told him that he was hunting with some of the men from Lakeside today, but would be back by sundown. R'dek thanked her and then set off with Rodne in search of lunch.

"I wish to speak with him about his bow," R'dek explained as he and Rodne shared the rest of the onion stuffed bread along with some fruit and cheese, back under the wingseed tree. "I am as much interested in how it is made as what it is made from. I have my suspicions, but I would like him to confirm them."

Rodne, for his part, was simply pleased to see R'dek take an interest in something new. He'd worried that the one-time traveling toolmaker would come to miss the opportunities for seeing new technologies and tools that traveling had brought him, but here was something new that had traveled to him instead, and that boded well for the future.

***


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Raider is freed, yet finds he is not terribly free.

Understanding that R'dek's conversation with Shef'hred had needed to be private had not removed the temptation Li'bet felt to eavesdrop on it, but she resisted. The very fact that it had taken place, however, was powerful evidence of the sort that she needed to take to Lakeside's elders, to convince them that Shef'hred might be safely released from his bonds.

He'd taken pains to disguise his discomforts as she'd dined with him that morning, and more that evening, but the facts of the matter made his feigned nonchalance pointless. Anyone bound so that their legs could not be straightened for more than three days would inevitably be suffering, especially one so accustomed to physical activity as Shef'hred must have been.

She knew there'd already been talk, and she hadn't missed the black looks surreptitiously aimed in her direction from some of the bakers, when she'd gone to fetch food for him, and at one time this might have worried her. She'd been headwoman of Lakeside for more than fifteen summers now, however, and she knew she had the loyalty of the better part of its residents. She had the freedom now, though she'd never taken it before, to do something a little controversial.

Asking for approval for their prisoner to walk freely among them might strike some as more than a little controversial, she knew, so she spent almost two days gauging people's feelings about the idea, and garnering support. It was late in the afternoon of that second day that she'd arranged to meet with the elders, and happily, Teleya had offered to support her idea before them. While Li'bet knew that R'dek would not be so keen on vouching for Shef'hred's character before Lakeside's elders, Teleya at least would be able to report on the tenor of their conversation, and that ought to count for a lot, she hoped.

And in the end, it had. What had sealed the deal was her insistence that Shef'hred first agree to making some sort of reparation, and Li'bet had thought of the perfect means to do that. She had thought it perfect, anyhow, and so had the elders -Hallen especially- but now it remained to be seen as to whether Shef'hred would think the same.

She dined with Shef'hred that morning on fresh bread with honey and tea, and the day was fair and pleasant, but it was too clear that the man had slept little if at all the night before. He was in some pain now, as well, and was hiding it badly, trying to eat though he obviously had little appetite. It dawned on Li'bet then that making him agree to anything when he was in such distress would be tantamount to forcing him under duress. It could never be an honest agreement.

There were times, Li'bet knew, that a headwoman must take certain autonomous actions, though she must be wise to know these times rightly. She would be staking much on her accurate assessment of Shef'hred's character, and if she was wrong then she risked a great deal, possibly even her life. No one can know another's heart, but she thought she knew how to catch a glimpse of Shef'hred's, and give credence to the certainty she already felt. She leaned forward to place a gently hand on Shef'hre'd own, as he chewed disinterestedly on his bread, calling his attention to the seriousness of her intent.

"Shef'hred," she said, "when you speak of how you have lost your honor, I see in you an honest grief, and though you insist that it is something that is beyond regaining, I believe that a part of you longs for the chance, would do anything for such a possibility." She met her eyes now with the utmost sincerity, and he seemed taken off guard by it. 

"Tell me Shef'hred," she asked, insistent, "is that true?"

Shef'hred's gaze was caught in hers for a moment, and he seemed almost startled, but he broke away a moment later to stare down and to the side. Under her hand she felt his form a fist, then relax again. "Yes," he said at last, still not meeting her gaze.

Li'bet nodded, her certainty like a rock. "Sit forward," she commanded, and when he did she drew her knife from her belt -a gift from R'dek last Midwinters- and cut the thongs binding his ankles to his waist, and then the ones securing his feet. When he looked up at her in surprise, she caught his hands and cut those bindings too, then lifted the knife to show him.

"R'dek the Toolmaker, whom I believe you have met," she said with a smile, "made the knife that freed you. I thought you might be interested to know."

"Bet he'd be interested too," Shef'hred said, grimacing as he struggled to shift his position. "Please excuse me for a moment, Headw... Li'bet -this may take a little bit." He ended up tipping himself over onto his side, then ever so slowly extending first one leg, then the other, groaning loudly as he did.

Li'bet winced to see his face contort in undisguised agony as he straightened his long confined limbs. "I am so sorry," she murmured, shaking her head in dismay. "We should never have kept you like this so long."

"S'okay," Shef'hred muttered, having now rolled onto his front so that his face was pressed into the grass. "Your guys loosened things up a couple times a day so I could take care of, you know, personal stuff... It's not so bad."

The small, pained noises Shef'hred continued to make suggested otherwise, and reminded Li'bet of the knots she used to tie herself into when she'd lose herself in a project on her small tapestry loom and spend all day long on her knees. Ca'dell would come home to find her barely able to stand, and then he'd lay her out on their bed and work the knots out with his strong hands. Her hands, Li'bet reflected now, were not so large, nor likely so strong, but perhaps they were strong enough.

Sitakhus, guarding Shef'hred this morning, was already looking at them strangely, though he had been told that Shef'hred would be released from his bonds. The noises he was making were just a bit alarming, but a glance in their direction showed the guard that nothing was amiss, even as the sounds Shef'hred made changed abruptly when Li'bet began to knead the backs of his calves, massaging out the abused and neglected muscles there.

"Whu...?" he mumbled, turning his head to the side to try and see what she was doing.

"My man used to do this for me," Li'bet explained, "when I'd spent all day on my knees, weaving. Is it helping any?"

"Oh hell yes," Shef'hred groaned, in a way that suggested other sorts of pleasures, and Sitakhus seemed to think so too, the way he was frowning at the both of them. He could see for himself, Li'bet knew, that nothing inappropriate was happening, but she could also see that he didn't quite approve. Well, rumors would fly, regardless; Li'bet knew better than to fret about that and continued to work over Shef'hred's abused muscles until the tremors decreased to almost nothing.

"Man..." Shef'hred said, ever so slowly pushing himself over to lie on his side, then, moving like an old man, pushing himself upright to rest his back against the pole to which he had been bound. "Thank you for that," he said, artifice stripped away by the pain. "So... I'm guessing what you were talking about earlier... that chance for me to regain my honor, wasn't just hypothetical, was it?"

"No, it wasn't," Li'bet said. "But it's our sort of honor, not yours, and does involve some... manual labor. If you can't do that, well, I wouldn't have your legs bound again, but..."

"So I'm going to have to earn my freedom, is that it?" Shef'hred asked.

"Not exactly," Li'bet said. "If you agree to this, you'll have your freedom, for what it's worth. Doing this work... it would be more about proving your honor."

"And what does that matter to you?" Shef'hred asked, no hostility in his voice, but much confusion. Li'bet shrugged.

"We would not give dishonorable persons the freedom of our village," she explained. "You would be watched, to start with, to be sure you do no harm to anyone or anything, but if you chose to run away, so be it. There is your freedom. Once you prove your honor among us, however, you would have the freedom to go _or_ stay, if you wished."

"And why would I want to stay here?" Shef'hred asked, and Li'bet could see that while he believed his honor lost, Shef'hred still had his pride, and he struggled with it now.

"I have no idea," she said meeting his eyes honestly. "As I said, you would have your freedom, as you have it now... but where else would you go?" That was cruel, Li'bet knew, but for all that Shef'hred's pride was a fine thing, it would hold him back now. Her words had struck a blow to it, though, and it saddened her to see how it hurt him.

"Nowhere," he said, barely audible as he stared down at his hands.

"Shef'hred," she said softly, laying a hand on his shoulder. "If it didn't matter to me, I would tell you to go take your freedom now, and never to let yourself been seen in these parts again, and I've no doubt that there are many in this village who would just as soon you did, but I and others take the long view. In that view, we might have better confidence that you would not remain nearby, laying in wait for a chance at vengance, if we settled things between us."

"Maybe," Shef'hred said, in the tone of a man grudgingly conceding a point.

"For my part," Li'bet took a breath, preparing to go a little ways out on a limb. "I honestly do believe that our village would be the better for having you become part of it, and that, over time, you would truly be accepted, even welcomed."

"Right," Shef'hred's snort of derision had a bitter edge to it, but Li'bet could hardly blame him. "'Over time.' I'll be welcomed into my grave when I die of old age; that's when I'll be welcome here."

"By some," Li'bet admitted with a little smile. "Others will find it easy enough to welcome you once you have done your part in rebuilding the fishing dock, assuming you do it well and with a good will."

Shef'hred glanced over in the direction of the lake and the remains of the dock, assessing and apparently finding the task acceptable. "And what about the ones who don't?" he asked.

"There are over two hundred men, women and children in this village," Li'bet pointed out. "Surely you can't imagine that every one of them gets along with everyone else."

"I guess that makes sense," Shef'hred conceded, perhaps seeing in her chagrined smile the many times she'd been called on to referee in various village feuds. "So... rebuilding the dock, huh? Is this something I'm gonna have to do by myself? Because, I don't figure it will come as any surprise to you, but I've never done work like that before in my life."

"And I don't imagine that it will come as any surprise to you," Li'bet answered, "that no one is terribly keen on having you work unsupervised, for numerous reasons. Hallen has volunteered to oversee the project, and you. He's a good man, and he'll treat you fairly."

Shef'hred nodded, wincing a little as he stretched his legs again. "Will I be starting today?" he asked.

"No," Li'bet said, shaking her head. "We thought it would be better to give you a day to recover, but if you'd like to stretch your legs with a little walk later, I'll have Hallen come by and give you an overview of what you'll be doing."

"And if I'd like to go on a little walk by myself?" Shef'hred asked. Li'bet gave a half frown.

"Until we get to... know you better, there will be someone with you at all times," she said, "and for now, it might be wisest to stay in this area. With time, I hope, people will get used to seeing you around the village, but just now... feelings are still running a little high."

"Yeah, makes sense..." Shef'hred said, sounding a touch bitter as he looked out over the grassland, away from the village. Reconsidering his options, Li'bet imagined. The man didn't have many, and that had to rankle someone accustomed to so much freedom.

"I have the things we took from you, when you were captured," she offered, knowing that there was no comfort she could offer him for his lost former life of freedom and privilege. "I'd be happy to return them to you," she continued. "All except the knife, I'm afraid, for now. I'll keep it for you though. I promise it won't go to anyone else."

"My jewelry, you mean?" Shef'hred asked her, his expression difficult to read, but not particularly happy. "I can't wear it anymore. It was the mark that I'd earned myself a band, and was their leader." He shook his head and Li'bet could see that what she'd meant to be a peace offering was only bringing the man bitterness and grief.

"I'm sorry," she said, hoping that he would hear the sincerity in her voice. "I... I didn't think what it might mean to you. I only meant to return what was yours."

"Why would you know?" Shef'hred replied, his voice bleak. "Your people have no such marks, no such honors. You know as little about my people as I know about yours."

Li'bet knew that Shef'hred hadn't meant the remark to be cutting, but it had been. She'd let herself spin a foolish fairy tale that Shef'hred would happily reject everything from his old life and leave it behind without regrets. That, of course, had been terribly ignorant, and she felt more disappointed in herself than anything.

"Of course," she said, subdued. "I'm afraid I've been stupid, and I am sorry. What would you like me to do with them?"

Shef'hred shrugged -a painful gesture. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe, see if the people who lost... homes, family members, if they want them? Divide it between them, if they do... And give the knife to the toolmaker. Tell him that the knife he made freed me when you do, and then tell him to ask himself whose knife is better. I know I am."

Shef'hred's knife was of bronze, the strange, hard, brown metal that Li'bet had heard of but never seen or touched before. R'dek's eyes went dreamy when he spoke of it, as other men's did when one spoke of gold or other riches, and she wondered what he would make of Shef'hred's gift. The rest of Shef'hred's small treasure trove of ornaments and jewelry included four rings, a pair of bracers, a torque and a wide, flat neck piece, and a handful of hair ornaments, all made of shiny, polished copper. She herself, considered 'wealthy' by the standards of Lakeside, had a single bracelet and hair ornament made of this metal, and no one else in the village had any such. 

Without a doubt, more than a few of the families who had lost loved ones in the battle would refuse these offerings from the captive raider leader, but others would accept them happily. Of course, Li'bet had a feeling that no small measure of jealousy and avarice might well be generated by these gifts, and conflict spring between those that accepted them and those who did not. For a moment she considered throwing them all into the lake, but the waist of such an action was unconscionable. They were bound to see more such things in the days to come, and they must all learn to deal with them.

Li'bet, for her part, had to learn to deal with the fact that making Shef'hred welcome in Lakeside, insofar as she was able, was not going to make Shef'hred a happy man. The raider was never going to forget or disregard who he had been for half his life, and it was unfair and unrealistic of Li'bet to imagine that he might. She looked up to regard the man, leaning in feigned relaxation against the pole he'd been tied to for four days, and realized that where she'd intended to bring him hope and encouragement today, all she'd brought him was pain and grief. Suddenly Li'bet found she was doubting herself, as she had not in many summers -not since her first days as headwoman.

"Forgive me," Li'bet said, feeling terribly uneasy. "I'll do as you've requested, with your things, but I need to be on my way for now. I'll... probably be back this evening, and someone will bring you something to eat at midday. It's probably best for now that you let us bring you food here..."

"Sure," said Shef'hred, looking up at her a little worriedly as she stood. "I'll be fine."

"Good, good," Li'bet said, brushing the grass off her hands once she was up. "Then I'll bid you both," she glanced over at Sitakhus, "fair day," and then she was off, already turned away and walking as she heard both men's returned farewells. She would do as Shef'hred requested, though she knew some trouble would surely arise from it. Trouble would arise no matter what she did, she realized, and it would be a test of her leadership skills as no other.

Drawing a long, uneasy breath, Li'bet considered how best she might distribute the raider's troubled legacy throughout her village, and not cause it to be torn apart at the seams.

 

****


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shef'hred's gift changes R'dek's world.

Radek looked over the perfect, straight limb of yellow-wood it had taken him two days of roaming through various local forests with R'non to find, with complete satisfaction. It had most certainly been worth it, for as he removed the bark, the grain that was revealed was just as he had hoped: smooth, close and perfectly even. The warrior had allowed R'dek to inspect the wood of his own long bow, showing him just how perfect the grain must be to support the stresses that would come with its use. The grain of the limb he worked now was much the same, and R'dek felt the warm sense of accomplishment that came with setting off on what he knew would be another fine piece of work.

The knife he was using now was one he had made while showing Kvena'ah some of his knapping techniques, and it was a perfectly good knife, but he had one back in the cave which he had made years ago, specifically for working on wood, and he was missing it now. No man or woman loves their tools so much as the toolmaker, he'd heard it said time and again in his travels, and R'dek knew this to be altogether true. He was beginning to miss quite a few things about the home he had come to share with Rodne -the peace and quiet, the natural beauty of the mountains, even Spitt, the small wildcat Rodne had adopted as an orphaned kitten, but he missed his tools most of all.

These thoughts drifted on the periphery of R'dek's mind this afternoon, however, as R'dek happily lost himself in the task of stripping the bark off the yellow-wood branch that was destined to become his first longbow. Watching the smooth, fine grained wood slowly come to be revealed under his knife as he worked, R'dek was, naturally, completely engrossed in his task and did not hear Li'bet draw near at all. It was only as he paused to take a drink of water from his nearby flask that he noticed her presence, startling slightly.

"Headwo... Li'bet, forgive me," he spluttered. "I did not see you..."

"No need to apologize," she said with an easy smile. "I didn't want to interrupt you while you were working." She moved closer to take a look at just what he'd been working on. "Will that be a bow, like R'non's?"

"I hope so," R'dek said, careful not to jinx his work. "It would be my first."

"I'm sure it will be a fine one, when it's finished," she said. "And the first of many. I have something here that may possibly aid in your task as well. A... gift, from Shef'hred."

What she held out to him now, in a finely worked leather scabbard, was clearly a knife of some sort, but when R'dek took it, drawing it from the scabbard by it's leather wrapped handle, he thought his poor eyes were misleading him again. Surely it could not be...

"This..." he said, eyes wide with wonderment. "Li'bet, do you know what this is?"

"I thought it was a knife," she said, gentle humor in her smile.

"So it is," said R'dek dryly. "What I meant to ask was if you knew what it was made of."

"It's bronze, isn't it?" she relied, sounding a little uncertain, for all that her knowledge surprised him. R'dek had learned of the remarkable brownish metal in his travels, and even seen a few specimens but, while he was certain that it would soon become far more common, he'd rarely seen it this far west.

"Yes, it most certainly would seem to be," R'dek said, his voice hushed with wonder. "It... it is a gift beyond measure. Li'bet..." R'dek lifted his head to meet her gaze. "Why?" he asked "Why would he make such a gift as this? I do not understand."

The expression on the headwoman's face as she answered was hard to read, though there did seem to be some humor in it. "I... released Shef'hred from his bonds today," she said, which wasn't really any kind of answer, but R'dek guessed that it might be the beginning of one. He nodded for her to continue.

"We really couldn't keep him like that any longer," she continued -R'dek nodding again to let her know he thought so too, "and the elders agreed... So, you see, it happened to be this knife," Li'bet lifted the fine stone knife that R'dek had given her last Midwinters, "that I used to cut his bindings, and it struck me that he might be interested in knowing who had made it."

"So you told him..." R'dek said, not sure what he thought about the fact that his knife had been used to free the raider, nor that the man had been told.

"I did," Li'bet concurred with a nod, "and he said that I should be sure to tell you as well." She smiled wryly at this, and R'dek could not but return the smile. He was a fascinating man, this Shef'hred; there could be no doubt of that.

"Later," Li'bet continued, "I told him he could have his jewelry back, that we took from him when he was captured, but he said he didn't want it, and to give it to those who had suffered loss or harm from the battle. I told him that the knife was his too, though I must keep it for him for a little while yet, but he said to give it to you, and so I have."

R'dek stared down at the knife, speechless at first, shaking his head in astonishment. "I still do not understand," he said after a moment.

"I can't say I honestly do either," Li'bet said, "though I am afraid it is partly because he feels he no longer deserves it."

"And I do?" R'dek said. He pulled the knife entirely free of it's scabbard and tested it against the bark of the yellow-wood branch he'd been stripping. The fine polished, golden hued edge cut through the fibrous bark as though it were fresh cheese. R'dek swore softly in astonishment.

"My goodness," Li'bet said, stepping closer to inspect the cut mark. R'dek nodded silently.

"I think my world has changed," he said quietly.

"I think the world is changing for all of us," Li'bet said soberly.

"Hey, R'dek!" Rodne's voice jarred both of them. "Finally found your perfect stick?"

He'd been consulting with various of the villagers and drafting out plans for the new fishing dock with Hallen, the last few days that R'dek had been rising at dawn and returning after dark with R'non, in his search for just the right yellow-wood branch. Today he'd been helping Kubia's family rebuild their hut which, R'dek had heard, had involved a lot of suggesting very clever improvements and very little heavy lifting. There were only a few complaints about it, however, as the improvements really were clever, and just having Rodne the Hermit's slightest help was considered very lucky indeed. Rodne's arrival here just now suggested that it was probably time for a midday meal.

"That is not all I have," R'dek said excitedly. "Come, have a look at what Shef'hred has given me!"

Rodne's brows rose at R'dek's evident enthusiasm, and strode promptly over to have a look. When he was close enough to see, R'dek laid his new knife to the yellow-wood bark once again, carving away another long, perfect curl of wood.

"Oh my gods," Rodne breathed. "Is that bronze? Shef'hred _gave_ you a _bronze knife?_ Is he insane?" R'dek huffed out a laugh.

"Not... precisely, I do not think," R'dek said.

"No," Li'bet offered, "I think he is just very sad." Both men looked at her oddly.

"He has given away everything he has that is of value -things I told him he was entitled to keep," she explained. "It's as if he's preparing to die... or he thinks he already has."

"Well, he has, in a way, hasn't he?" R'dek reflected, gazing down at the knife in his hand. "His life as he has known it is over. All these things -this knife, his jewelry, they were a part of that life."

"You're right, of course," Li'bet agreed. "What I wish I knew was how to convince him to want a new life, here or anywhere else."

"Yeah, well, when you figure that out," Rodne put in suddenly, his voice unexpectedly quiet. "You might want to tell Caresn, because he's going to have to convince Loren of the same thing."

R'dek and Li'bet both looked up at Rodne's comment, and sure enough, the healer could be seen just emerging from his hut, alone, and looking weary and miserable.

"Caresn," Li'bet rose and strode toward him, beckoning him to join them by the fire circle. "How are you doing?"

Caresn shrugged and seemed to try to lighten his expression, but then gave up. "I've been better," he admitted with a sigh, letting Li'bet guide him with an arm around his shoulders. "Neither one of us has been sleeping terribly well, and now Loren seems to have taken a low fever. His wound is healing as well as it might... but he doesn't really seem to be recovering at all."

"Dammit," Rodne said sorrowfully and R'dek lowered his head, his heart aching for Caresn and Loren both. His head lowered, R'dek's gaze fell on the knife, the midday sun gleaming on its finely honed edge, and the half peeled piece of wood that would become his first long bow. When he finished it, the bow would go to someone other than R'dek, as a distance weapon such as this would be absolutely useless to someone with eyesight as bad as his own (or aim as bad as Rodne's). He had not really made a decision, yet, who would have it, or whether he would trade it for something, but now he had just received an unparalleled gift, one which R'dek could not comfortably accept without making some kind of gift of his own.

The bow must be a gift then, he realized now, and who better to receive it than the man with the finest eyesight, and the finest aim in Lakeside? The perfection and symmetry of this solution delighted R'dek more than he could say, but it needed to be done right. Shef'hred must understand his part in it, too.

"Pardon," R'dek said, standing suddenly. "I must... I need to do something. Rodne," he handed the partially peeled yellow-wood limb to his lover. "Guard this with your life. I'll be back before long. Oh, and anyone who would like this," R'dek dropped his old, stone carving knife on the log where he'd been sitting, "they may have it."

He heard Li'bet give an amused sounding chuckle as he departed, but he left her and the others behind soon enough, walking quickly across the village to where Shef'hred's 'camp' such as it was, was situated. He found the man stretched out on his belly, on the grass in front of his shelter, looking, curiously, a little like Spitt, basking in the sun. He seemed content enough, head pillowed on his crossed arms, but the expression on his face was a touch brooding, rather than relaxed.

"Toolmaker," Shef'hred called welcomingly as he evidently recognized R'dek's feet. "Come for another chat?"

"If you are agreeable," R'dek replied. "And also to convey my thanks."

"Aha," Shef'hred said, rolling and then pushing himself upright a little gracelessly, and with a grimace of pain. This seemed wrong to R'dek, as he imagined that the raider should naturally move like a cat, as well as rest like one, but of course, R'dek realized, he was still recovering from being restrained for several days. "Sit," Shef'hred invited when he was more or less upright, gesturing to the ground in front of him. "I'd offer you something to drink, if I had anything, but..." he shrugged, indicating his mean surroundings.

"Thank you," R'dek answered, "but I will not be staying long. I have much work to do today, though your gift will make some of the work go far more quickly."

"Ah, so Li'bet gave you the knife?" Shef'hred asked, finally settling himself comfortably.

"She did," R'dek said with a grin, "and I must tell you that I do not know whether to kiss you or fall at your feet and weep with gratitude."

"Is there possibly a... third option?" Shef'hred asked, a little uneasily.

"There is," R'dek said, grinning even more widely. "Though I don't know if you will like it any better, in the end. Shef'hred, your gift to me follows one that was given to you, and must be followed by one from me to another. To do otherwise... it would go against nature -my nature at any rate."

Shef'hred tilted his head thoughtfully. "Understandable," he said. "So what's your gift going to be?"

"I have just now begun making a new weapon, the first of it's kind I have ever made," R'dek replied. "It would be useless to me, even if I had vowed to never take another man's life, save in self defense, as it strikes at a great distance -much farther than I am able to see."

"You're making one of those giant bows, like... that tall guy with the crazy hair has?" Shef'hred asked. "Don't tell me you want to give it to me, 'cause I don't think most of the folks here would be too happy about me having it."

R'dek shook his head, no. "There is one of our best hunters," he explained, "who was injured in the fight -his foot string was cut- and he feels that his old life has ended now, for this injury means that he will never again be able to hunt as he once did. He, like you, sees only endings in his life, and cannot imagine any meaningful new beginnings."

"Yeah, I can see how he might," Shef'hred said. "So he's the one you are going to give it to?"

"He is," R'dek confirmed. "With this weapon, I believe he may be able to learn to hunt in a new way, and begin a new life, in spite of his injury."

"Sounds like it would be possible, yeah," Shef'hred said. "But I don't get what there might be about this that I might not like."

R'dek nodded, thinking how he might explain himself to Shef'hred. "You know that if you dig a hole near a river or lake, it will soon fill with water, yes?" he began.

"Sure," Shef'hred agreed with a nod.

"If you take water from such a hole, more will inevitably come to take it's place," R'dek continued. "This is how I believe it is when you give away something of true value. The more water you take away -the greater the worth of your gift- the more that must inevitably return. For that reason I say to you, Shef'hred, that many gifts will be returning to you, though I cannot say how or from whom, but that, like my gift to our hunter, they will give you a new life, here in Lakeside, whether you wish it or not."

"Huh," Shef'hred said thoughtfully. "Well, that's an interesting theory, though I'm not sure if I believe in it."

R'dek shrugged, grinning widely. "You do not have to," he said, "for I believe that it will be proven to you, before too much time as passed. But, speaking of passing time, I must make use of it now to fashion this new bow -a task which your knife makes much, much easier, so I must thank you once again."

"Sure," Shef'hred said, a little uncomfortable with R'dek's gratitude. "But... you know what Li'bet said to me when she cut me loose this morning?"

"That it was a knife I had made that freed you?" R'dek answered. "She said the same to me."

"So..." Shef'hred made an indistinct gesture. "Think of my gift as a thanks to you." R'dek shook his head.

"I make tools, to be used for good or ill by those who hold them," he said. "It is she you have to thank, and the Elders who agreed with her. I am not sorry to learn that my work was the instrument they used, however," R'dek added with a smile.

"Well then," Shef'hred said playfully, "I guess I'm not sorry that you're not sorry."

R'dek chuckled as he rose, feeling light in his heart that he was able to exchange such pleasant words with the man he once thought to be his greatest enemy. "Fair day to you, Shef'hred," he said as he parted, passing a nod as well to Teleya, still keeping watch on the raider. "I look forward to our next conversation."

"Yeah," said Shef'hred, suddenly sounding a little disarmed. "Me too."

***


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shef'hred faces an identity crisis.

Shef'hred stretched out his aching legs again, slowly and carefully, as he watched the toolmaker depart. In a strange way it had been easier to deal with the man as he first encountered him -angry and vengeful. That was the sort of thing he expected from his captors. R'dek, as he was behaving now, and the Headwoman, Li'bet, on the other hand, were confusing the hell out of him, and this made his next decisions even more difficult than they already were.

He was fairly sure that Li'bet had told him the truth when she'd said he was free to go. If he took off running now... well, Shef'hred reflected, he'd probably get no more than a dozen steps before he fell on his face, the way his legs were feeling now, but give it a few days and he'd be back in shape again. And if he did take off, he really didn't think anyone would chase him down or kill him. They'd probably watch their boarders carefully for a few months, maybe track him to see if he was hanging around or not, but that was all.

He looked across at the woman guarding him -Teleya, he thought her name was- and she met his eyes directly, without a trace of either fear or aggression. She and her tall, scary looking friend would probably be the ones to track him, and they were probably pretty good at it. They had that look about them. They wouldn't give him any trouble, though, as long as he didn't bother anyone else, Shef'hred was sure of that too, but what of it?

What would he do, a homeless, tribeless, former warrior, out in the world alone? Turn to robbery on the road? Hire himself out as a fighter? Become a hermit? None of those choices sounded very appealing. How could he bear to live any other life, though? How could he endure a life of labor and sameness, year after year, in a place like this? Eventually he'd become the sort of man that he loathed the very idea of now. How could he allow himself become that man? Wouldn't he rather be dead?

Wouldn't he?

More than likely, no one would stop him if he staggered over to the lake and drowned himself either. He was just as free to do that as anything. If he would be the man his father raised him to be, he would do just that. Why wasn't he, then? The part of Shef'hred that spoke with his father's voice had an answer for that. It was because he was weak, and a coward, and because he'd meant it when he'd told the toolmaker that he was looking forward to visiting with him again, when he should have wanted nothing other than to kill the man who had spit in his face.

Shef'hred had no particular love for his father, but there was a part of him that was impossible to ignore, who devoutly believed that the man had been right about what a good -and real- man really was, even if he'd been an asshole. Shef'hred wanted to be a good man; it was all he had left now, and if that meant dying to prevent himself from becoming... something far less... Shef'hred felt a painful resolve form in him, and began the equally painful process of dragging himself to his feet.

Teleya, wisely, did not offer him help, though she watched him like a hawk. When he stood, finally, leaning heavily on the post to which he'd been bound, and which now served as his 'tent pole', she stood as well, saying nothing, and keeping her posture carefully casual. It was then, of course, that her tree-like companion showed up, and they appeared to be switching off.

He had some food with him too, for Shef'hred -a piece of flatbread rolled around a strip of dried fish- and although he didn't really feel hungry, he ate it, chewing mechanically as he leaned against his tent post. The tall man, he thought he'd heard Teleya call him R'non, stood to watch him for a moment, then finally sat, evidently satisfied that even if Shef'hred took off 'running' he'd easily be able to catch him.

Eventually he began working on making arrows again -long ones for the absurdly long bow he used- apparently not paying the least bit of attention to Shef'hred, though he knew that not to be true. Shef'hred tried a few tentative steps, wincing as he did, then tried a little stretching, which he could not manage without a grunt of pain or two. R'non remained mercifully impassive.

He did not fail to notice when Shef'hred began to make small forays away from the support of his tent post, though did no more than to occasionally lift his head from his work. The man was never going to let him wander off unattended, Shef'hred realized, even if his intention was only to drown himself. Still, maybe there was one avenue of subterfuge open to him.

"Hey pal," Shef'hred called. "Is it okay if I go, ah, water a tree? I'll be right back, I promise."

R'non looked up, casting about for the nearest tree which, Shef'hred now realized, was some distance to the west. "You think you'll really make it that far on your own?" R'non asked with a humorless smirk.

"Sure," Shef'hred responded with entirely false bravado.

"Why don't you go and water the barricade instead," R'non suggested the row of waist high sharpened stakes set into the earth, a few steps away. This, Shef'hred sensed, was not really an optional suggestion.

"Sure," he said again, trying to sound casually agreeable, not at all sure that he had fooled R'non in the least. It was only a handful of steps to take him to where the barricade stood between him and his guard, and it was about all he could manage. He'd have never made it to the tree, he thought with a sigh, bracing himself with one hand on one of the sturdier stakes while he relieved himself. It was still good to be able to take care of this himself, but his idea about casually wandering off in the direction of the lake was clearly not going to fly.

Of course, the lake was always going to be there, Shef'hred thought as he refastened his leggings and hobbled back to his shelter, but his resolve, he knew, was not. Every day, that passed, every handspan of the sky that the sun crossed, weakened the determination that he had formed to do the right thing, and end his life before it became something he could never take pride in. His father's voice goaded him to do it now, not to wait, but rushing off now would only result in an embarrassing incident that might result in his _wishing_ to die with greater intensity, but bring him no closer to achieving that goal.

He could, he supposed, just sit here on the ground and beat his head against this post until his skull cracked open, and sinking deeper and deeper into a morass of helpless anger and self pity, Shef'hred began to wonder if he couldn't really do just that, but before he could try, he saw a villager, one he did not think he had seen before, approaching his 'camp.' Shockingly, the man was actually a shade taller than R'non, but he was no where near as intimidating. Leaner, with long, lank gray hair and kind eyes, the man greeted R'non, then strode directly over to Shef'hred, looking him up and down only briefly, then settling his gaze directly to meet Shef'hred's.

"I am Hallen," the man introduced himself, "Master Fisherman here in Lakeside. Headwoman Li'bet tells me that you have agreed to help us rebuild our fishing dock. Is this so?"

"I guess," Shef'hred said, now recalling what Li'bet had said about this man coming to walk with him and show him the dock. Gods he was an idiot. They were going to take him right to the lake. All he had to do was play along for a little while longer.

"Good," Hallen was saying with open sincerity. "Then I will say we are well met. Will you say the same?"

Shef'hred responded to Hallen's open hand gesture with his own. "Well met, Hallen," he said, nodding. "I am Shef'hred, the rider, and Headwoman Li'bet told me that you'd take me walking to see the dock, or rather, the place it used to be. Is that the plan?"

"That it is, friend," Hallen said, "and I know that you may still find walking a little difficult, so please do not hesitate to ask for assistance if you need it."

"I think I'm gonna see how far I can manage without it," Shef'hred said, pushing himself away from his shelter pole. "Just lead the way."

"Fair enough," the fisherman said, striding out effortlessly to do as Shef'hred had asked. The fisherman bid R'non farewell as they departed, letting him know that they'd be back before dinner time, and Shef'hred frowned to think that he'd eaten his last meal, and should never see R'non again. He glanced over at him one last time as he walked painfully away, but said not a word.

Hallen slowed his pace after a bit, and though Shef'hred had not asked him to, he was grateful nonetheless. Every muscle and joint, from his hips to his toes, ached horribly, by the time the lake and the charred remains of the dock came into view. When his left knee gave way suddenly for a second, Hallen was right there for him, letting Shef'hred grab his shoulder to keep from going down. Shef'hred left his hand resting there for the rest of the trip, telling himself that he could redeem his lost dignity, for once and for all, when they reached the lake.

He would certainly have enough witnesses, Shef'hred reflected, for the lake shore was a busy place. Here, where a handful of men worked at sorting the possibly useful, only slightly charred pieces of wood from that useful only for firewood, and further up the sandy shoreline, where a group of women worked, washing and doing other chores, as their children played nearby. The day was fair too -the sky completely cloudless, with a pleasant breeze blowing. A nice day to die.

Hallen was introducing to someone who looked faintly familiar... right, this was the guy who had stood guard over him that first night, and his name, apparently, was Demery. Shef'hred returned his greeting politely, his mind on the steps from here to the water's edge. "Let me show you where we are now, and what our plans are," Hallen was saying, so that made things simpler still. 

He was able to walk slowly, without the fisherman's support, down to the dock's surviving stone footings, nodding appropriately as Hallen spoke of how the dock had been constructed, and the improvements he and Rodne -that rude stargazer guy- had planned. None of that was important now, however, because here he was, standing with his feet nearly in the water, all he had to do was turn away... walk a few steps. He'd dive down if they came after him, and Shef'hred had no idea how to swim -not that he could in his current condition, anyhow. He'd be done for as soon as he got out to where the water was over his head. Shef'hred shuffled a little ways into the lake, pretending to want to get a look at the other side of the footings. Nearly there...

There came a shout then, first from a small group of youngsters far down the lake shore to the east, then from some of the other children on the nearer shore. Then he heard it himself, the too familiar distant thunder, though there was not a cloud in the sky.

"The riding beasts! The riding beasts!" the children shouted. "There they are! Look! Look!" Even the adults working around him stopped what they were doing for a second, looking out, to the south, to see the herd of recently emancipated horses, galloping together across the grassland, flowing like water, the way that they always did.

"Horses," he heard himself say, softly at first, and then loud enough to be heard. "They're called horses... not 'riding beasts'." Shef'hred had thought his legs hurt, but that was nothing compared to the ache that seized his heart when he saw them, saw his own, coal black, Jumper, flying out ahead of the group, leading them with an innate skill Shef'hred himself had never possessed.

He was hardly aware that he was moving, out of the water to make his way slowly toward them, though they were much too far away to reach. The herd slowed now, evidently finding good grazing, though Jumper still circled around them, making sure none of his charges wandered off. Wincing in sympathetic discomfort, Shef'hred could see now that Jumper still wore his saddle and halter, as did most of the horses, as no one here would know to remove them. There, Gods help her, was a mare with her reins tangled with a foreleg, and bringing up the rear was Ba'ates red colored stallion, Spark, with his saddle come loose and hanging under his belly. He bucked again and again, as Shef'hred watched, but of course, could not dislodge it.

None of the people here would have even the faintest idea how to approach a horse, much less that they could become injured or crippled, or even killed with their riding gear left on like this. He couldn't leave them. He couldn't bear to leave Jumper. Not like this; not with no one to care for them. Shef'hred felt his resolve to end his life break into little pieces, his father's angry, disapproving voice falling on deaf ears.

"They are indeed magnificent creatures," Hallen was saying, and then he was telling Shef'hred about how he could be useful carrying newly cut logs from the forest to the far lake shore where they would be floated across to be used in the rebuilding of the dock, and Shef'hred heard his own voice saying, "Sure, I can do that... I mean, not today, obviously, but at some point here..."

What was he doing?

He'd been a heartbeat away from saving himself and instead, here he was agreeing to labor of the basest sort. He felt disoriented... like he'd lost something he could not even name any more. Was it his honor? Now he wasn't even sure what that meant.

"Shef'hred, are you alright?" Hallen was asking him, and Shef'hred had no idea how to answer him.

"I think... I might need to give my legs a rest for now," he said, not sure where the words had come from, though they were true enough.

"Of course," Hallen was immediately understanding, letting Shef'hred take what help he wanted, and letting him set the pace. They made their ways slowly back to his shelter, Shef'hred lost in his thoughts and Hallen kindly leaving him be. He lowered himself to the ground the moment they arrived, dragging himself under the hide shelter Li'bet had built for him there, to curl on his side, back to the world. He'd not thought to ever see this place again, and returning to it came as a personal defeat, of the profoundest sort.

He might have dozed; he might have cried a little, though he would never admit this even to himself. Time passed, the angle of the sun shifted, little by little, until long shadows fell over his little shelter, and there came the sounds of a familiar voice, speaking softly with R'non, and then the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Shef'hred?" Li'bet's voice came, sounding a little tentative. "How are you doing this evening?"

"'M'fine," he bit out, as tersely as he could manage.

"I... I'm not sure that you sound fine," Li'bet replied after a moment, sounding even more tentative.

"And how is that any business of yours?" If Li'bet didn't know the real reason his voice sounded so harsh, he could pretend he didn't either. Li'bet didn't respond for a long spell, and Shef'hred began to think that maybe she'd left when she spoke again, barely loud enough for him to hear.

"Should... should I just leave your food and go?" she asked, not frosty and hostile as he'd expected, but sad, worried... and maybe just a little hurt.

She would go too, Shef'hred knew, if he didn't speak up... and he didn't want her to, didn't really want to be alone, even if he should. "No... wait..." Rolling back over was an ordeal, both physically and emotionally, and Shef'hred knew, as he scrubbed his hand over his face, that she would see the misery written there. There was no point then in disguising the grunt of pain he gave as he pushed himself upright, to sit once again with his back resting against his tent post.

"Shef'hred..." Li'bet said again sadly, seeing everything he was too weak to hide. "I'm so sorry..."

"For what?" he asked, feeling defeated, and yet still puzzled by this woman.

"I'm not sure," she said, sounding a little lost herself. "For your pain, for your loss... If you would speak of it... or would you rather not?"

Shef'hred drew his knees up so he could rest his elbows there, and then rest his head in his hands. "I don't know..." he began, the words coming without his having made any particular decision one way or another, he'd thought. "I don't know who I am anymore, but I don't think I can be... what everyone here wants me to be."

Feeling Li'bet's hand come to rest, carefully, on his leg, Shef'hred shuddered, not with discomfort, but the opposite. "I don't think anyone here knows who you might or might not become, if you chose to stay," she said. "I don't think you know yet either, but I do think it will be someone none of us knows yet. We've never known anyone like you before, Shef'hred, but most people here can only imagine that you must either be an uncivilized killer, or happy to settle down and be just like the other fishermen and hunters of Lakeside. Neither of those things is true, I know now, but the alternative -the truth- is something unknown, for all of us."

Shef'hred was surprised to hear the faintest note of recrimination in Li'bet's voice, as though she thought she'd made a mistake with him, though he couldn't imagine what it could be. He lifted his head to meet her gaze and saw it there in her eyes as well. She wanted to make something right with him and he had no idea what she'd done wrong. "How do I go forward," he asked, wanting to offer her something, "when I don't know who I am?"

"You'll need to feel your way," she answered him, receiving his offering graciously. "We all will, and take small steps." She took one of her own then, small but a little bold, in reaching up to take one of his hands, clasping it in her own. "Do you think you could eat something?" she asked then.

Shef'hred looked down at their joined hands, part of him afraid at what it could mean, another part desperately grateful for the touch, the human contact. He wasn't terribly hungry, but eating would mean being able to let go without rejecting her. He found he didn't want to do that at all. "What have we got?" he asked, still not letting go of her hand.

"Roast duck and onions," she answered with a smile. "And I think it's probably still fairly warm."

She retrieved a cloth covered bowl from behind her, and as soon as she removed the cloth Shef'hred could smell the cooked meat and onions, and he found, to his surprise, that the scents were actually waking his appetite. He plucked up a bit of meat at her gesture, finding it falling away from the bone easily, and the first taste woke his appetite further still, for it was absolutely delicious. "Damn, this is good," he said said, finding a piece of onion to follow it, and he realized that he was smiling.

"I'm glad you like it," Li'bet said with a smile of her own, that was surprisingly shy. It was a look that Shef'hred had never seen on her before, one that made him think of her, for the first time, not as his captor, nor as a leader of her people, but as a woman.

"You made this?" Shef'hred asked with a flash of insight. He was rewarded with a dazzling smile, and a little color on her fair cheeks.

"I did, in fact," she confessed, handing him some bread. "So thank you."

They ate in contented silence for a while, and Shef'hred found himself savoring the food, the feel of a cool breeze on his cheek and the sight of the long angled, amber colored sunlight falling on Li'bet's face. He found he could not make himself sorry that he was alive.

After a bit Li'bet began to tell him something about Hallen and his family and, when Shef'hred asked, about the tool maker and his odd friend, and he could not help but smile at her stories. Clearly Li'bet cared for her people, with all their faults and foibles, and for a moment, the idea of being one of the people she cared for seemed oddly attractive. Shef'hred soon recalled the burden of drudgery and menial labor that went with it, however, and the attraction faded again. The people here were only content because they didn't know any other life, and couldn't imagine one. Shef'hred couldn't make himself believe anything else.

Still, by the time the meal ended Shef'hred had to admit to a certain fondness that had grown in him for the headwoman. She was... impressive, in her own way. Almost honorable. It was because of this last that Shef'hred finally decided that he could trust her with his need to see the horses cared for. He brought it up as they were finishing the plums she'd brought as a sweet finish to the meal.

"Can I ask you... a favor?" he asked, wiping his plum juice sticky fingers on the grass.

"Of course," Li'bet answered him, brightening as though his asking did her a great honor.

"The horses... the ones that survived the battle, they'll mostly be okay here, running loose," he said, "but a lot of them still have their riding gear on -their saddles and halters and reins..." Of course she wouldn't know what those things were, but she was nodding. She got the general idea.

"That's not good for them?" she guessed.

"No," he confirmed. "They can end up getting hurt, or trapped, or even killed. Someone needs to get it off them. They can even cut it off -seeing as the owners are all dead. I'd do it myself, but I don't think I'll be up to chasing horses down for a few days, and besides..."

"Besides, you don't think we're going to be all that eager to give you that much freedom yet, or a knife," Li'bet said perceptively. "And you're probably right. Any instructions I should pass on to whoever wants to give it a try?"

A lifetime's worth, Shef'hred thought with frustration, but... "They're smart," he said, "and they'll pick up on what you're feeling, so be calm around them. Don't make any sudden moves and for the Gods' sake don't ever come up behind one. They can kill you with a kick from their back legs."

"I'll be sure to mention that," Li'bet said seriously.

"Yeah," Shef'hred said with a wry smile. "They'll be skittish around strangers, but if you bring an apple or a beetroot or something, a lot of them will make friends real fast. I, ah... I always talked to mine. Doesn't really matter what you say, as long as your voice is calm -it'll calm the horse down."

"Makes sense," Elizabeth said with a nod. "I think I can remember all that, or I can have whoever agrees to do the job come talk to you."

"Sure," Shef'hred replied, stretching his legs out with a comfortable sigh. He could feel them recovering already, and having this solid evidence at last lifted a small burden of anxiety. Li'bet watched him silently for a moment, then leaned forward to lay a hand on his arm again.

"Are you feeling any better now, Shef'hred?" she asked him, a soft intensity to her question that he found almost startling.

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully, finding her voice compelling the truth from him. "Yeah, I guess I am. Thanks." Her smile was brighter than the half moon, shining high in the sky, now that the sun had set. It's light remained with him too, even as she made her farewells, leaving him alone with R'non and the small fire that burned between them.

He stood once more and, with R'non's approval stepped over to 'water the barricade' again, finding the short journey much less of an ordeal than it had been this morning. So much had changed for him in only one day, he mused, returning to his shelter. He had been made free and yet not. He had determined to end his life, but hadn't, and had finished his day by extending a degree of trust to a woman who, by all rights he should have considered an enemy -and who should have considered him an enemy in turn.

He'd been thanked for a gift that he'd meant as little more than a creative discarding of property he could no longer keep, and been told that he must expect a gift of great significance in the future. He'd freely committed himself to a future life of a sort that he'd once considered worse than death, and turned away from the clean and honorable death he thought he'd longed for, for the sake of some animals, then turned the care of those creatures over to an unknown stranger. None of it made sense, but Shef'hred could not find any moment in the day that he regretted, or that he wished he'd done something different.

One small step at a time, Li'bet had advised him, and so it seemed it must be. It recalled Shef'hred to a misadventure he'd had when he and Jumper had first been getting to know each other. He'd taken a wrong turn and lead them both into a marshy area, with dangerous quagmires on every side. Horse and rider had been forced to trust each other that day, as they'd made their way, step by cautious step, out of that treacherous place, and at the end of it, Shef'hred knew, they'd forged a bond with each other that would last for the rest of their lives.

Coming to attack Lakeside had certainly been a wrong turn of his own making, Shef'hred had to admit, but Jumper was not with him now. It seemed he was alone... and yet that had seemed the case in the marsh as well -at first, for he had not yet learned to trust his mount. Could it be, he wondered now, that it was Li'bet who made this perilous journey with him? Was the way not just as uncertain and fraught with danger for her as it was for him? Might they not find their way forward best if they learned to trust each other?

The very idea left Shef'hred a little thunderstruck, but the parallels were too obvious to ignore. The enormity of this truth, and what it all might mean filled his thoughts and imagination as he gazed into the small fire that R'non continued to feed into the night. It was a long time before Shef'hred slept, and when he did, his dreams were all of uncertain journeys though unknown lands.

****


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> R'dek tries some 'toolmaker magic'.

The surface of the fine grained wood was smooth under R'dek's fingers, but the contour was not yet perfect. He raised the scraper to the place he felt needed to be shaped still, and shaved away a little bit more, with a soft sound of stone against wood, sshhhk... sshhhk... sshhhk...

There was not much light in Caresn's hut, even with the mid-morning sun streaming through the doorway, but this was not work for which R'dek needed his less than perfect eyes. It was not work suited for his fine, new, bronze knife either, but R'dek didn't mind. This sort of work, that some might call tedious and meticulous, R'dek had always found comforting, and even relaxing. There was such simple satisfaction in feeling the slow but steady progress of the tool being shaped under his fingers, and a peace to be found in the simple rhythms of the work.

Sshhhk... sshhhk... sshhhk...

All around his feet there was forming a little drift of thin wood shavings and fuzz, too fine even to make splinters, which was why Caresn had raised no objections to R'dek doing this work in his hut. He could work here and keep an eye on Loren, while Caresn took a much needed break. The overwrought healer had been so very grateful when R'dek suggested the idea that he hadn't even thought to inquire as to R'dek's motives, and probably had no idea that he had any, save to aid a friend. Indeed, since R'dek's intentions were to coax Caresn's lover back into taking an interest in his life, aiding his friends was a part of R'dek's long term goal, but so was passing on his own gift, to answer the one Shef'hred had given him, as well as seeing to it that Lakeside's finest hunter was not lost to them, in any capacity.

R'dek, like his lover, did not really believe in the Gods, but he did, in an odd and subtle fashion, believe in magic. It was a sort of magic that he worked with his hands whenever he engaged in his craft, after all, and now he planned to work a sort of toolmaker magic with Loren. He had never done such a thing before, and thought it best if he kept it strictly between the two of them to start with, but R'dek felt an uncanny confidence in this effort. He knew it as he knew the perfectly shaping contours forming in the wood of the soon-to-be longbow beneath his fingers.

Sshhhk... sshhhk... sshhhk...

"Caresn?" It was jarring to hear the hunter's voice so weak and unsteady, but R'dek's main focus was on the wood and stone beneath his fingers and so was able to answer calmly.

"He is out getting a little sun and fresh air," R'dek replied. "I said I would stay here to keep an eye on you. Is there anything I can get you? Some water or tea, or a little breakfast perhaps?"

"Maybe... maybe some tea," Loren said after a moment, a little reluctantly.

"Of course," Radek said with a nod, setting down his work to pour some tea from the pot keeping warm by the fire into a cup. "You would like some honey in it as well?"

"Um... sure," Loren said. "Just not too much."

R'dek nodded, dipping a little honey into Loren's cup and stirring it before handing it to him and then helping him to sit up. R'dek could feel how Loren's body was still a little warmer than it should be as he laid an arm over his shoulders to help him. The hunter had been suffering from a low fever for days now, and Caresn had been unable to drive it away. He was sure, and R'dek tended to agree, that this was because Loren was not entirely prepared to go on with his life as it must be now. The healer never said it in so many words, but R'dek could see the fear in his eyes when he spoke of how his lover was doing.

He returned to the long bow as Loren sipped at his tea, quickly falling back into the rhythm of the work. He knew that Caresn had wanted Loren to eat something too, but R'dek knew better than to plead or nag. Loren's appetite would return with his interest in life, and R'dek intended to address this latter directly. He smiled secretly to himself as he felt Loren's gaze fall on him, and on the long, contoured piece of wood in his hands.

"What're you working on there?" Loren asked eventually. Ah, R'dek thought with profound satisfaction. The prey has scented the bait; it is only a matter of time now...

"A long bow," R'dek answered. "It would be my first, but I have a very good feeling about it."

"Like the one that R'non has?" Loren asked and R'dek could hear the budding interest in his voice. The prey is enticed, R'dek thought; he draws closer to my trap...

"I hope it will be," R'dek answered, "but I will not know until it's finished and someone else has tried it out."

"Not you?" Loren inquired.

"I?" R'dek said with a laugh. "I should be strictly forbidden from shooting such a weapon where more than one person might be present. There is not telling what, or who, I might hit."

"Okay, you may have a point there," R'dek could hear a trace of a smile in Loren's voice. "But whoever tries it is going to want to trade you the sun, the moon and the stars to get to keep it for themselves."

"They may," R'dek said casually, seeing his prey on the verge of entering his trap. "But I have concluded that this first must be a gift."

"A gift?" Loren asked. "For who?"

"In fact," R'dek said with a utterly satisfied smile, "it will be for you, Master Huntsman." _Snap!_ he thought, watching Loren's eyes widen in surprise. His face closed down again a moment later.

"I'm finished with hunting," Loren said, looking away. "You know that."

"I thought I knew that your injury was in your foot," R'dek replied, undaunted. "I had not heard that it had effected your vision, or the strength or steadiness of your arms?"

"It hasn't..." Loren replied, actually sounding a little trapped, "but..."

"So," R'dek cut him off, spreading his hands in a shrug. "Then it must be yours. It is why I have brought it here to work on, after all. A tool such as this wishes to know its master, if it can, from the very beginning." He returned to work as he spoke, carefully adjusting the contour of the bow in that tricky spot where the curve changed from concave to convex. Glancing at the hunter out of the corner of his eye from time to time, R'dek saw that Loren seemed to be rapt, gazing at the instrument taking shape under his hands with fascination. He knew he did not need to say any more for now; his argument was far more eloquent than words.

Sshhhk... sshhhk... sshhhk...

"Can... um... can I touch it?" The longing was clear in Loren's voice, and R'dek smiled, knowing his 'magic' was working just as he had intended. Now he would weave the last bit of his spell, binding Loren to life as surely as if he had rope to do it with.

"You may..." R'dek replied, almost reluctantly, "but you must understand one... condition."

"Condition?" Loren asked.

"Once you touch it, the bow must be yours," R'dek explained. "No other will ever find it to their liking. It will not respond to them as it would to you, will not feel 'right' in their hands. It will never make any other hunter happy, if it comes to know your touch now. If it were to pass that you would not use it yourself -if you are truly 'finished' with hunting- then it would be a great waste... and a small tragedy, from my point of view, to have such a fine tool lie idle and unusable."

In the silence that followed, R'dek could feel the power of his magic, could feel the force of the attraction between the hunter and the sculpted piece of wood in his hands, and the promise it offered. In the dim light of Caresn's hut, R'dek saw Loren set his tea cup down and sit forward, looking down at his hands, and then at the unfinished bow again.

"Maybe..." he said softly, "maybe with this I wouldn't... wouldn't have to be finished... with hunting, I mean." R'dek nodded slowly, catching the larger meaning Loren hadn't really meant to give away, and when Loren reached his hands out he solemnly laid the bow into them. He would swear he could almost feel a spark of energy leap from his hands, through the wood, into Loren's, at the same time as he heard the hunter draw a surprised breath.

"I can feel the power in it," he said, his voice hushed, and R'dek knew a dizzying moment of realization that his spell might have been far more powerful than he realized, in addition to the elation that it seemed to have worked splendidly.

"That's as it should be," he said, trying to keep his voice calm. "It will be a powerful tool. More powerful than anything I have ever made, I think."

Loren nodded silently, carefully handing the bow back to its maker. "How long before it's finished?" he asked.

"Since this is my first," R'dek said, finding the place he'd been working on before, and laying the scraper to it again, "I cannot be quite sure, but I think I will be finished with the shaping tomorrow. After that the bow must be 'trained' to bend correctly, and it may be that you could help in that. If you are interested, I will ask R'non here to speak to us both about how it is to be done?"

"Sure," Loren said, and R'dek thrilled to hear a note of real anticipation in Loren's voice. "Do you think he could come tomorrow?"

R'dek grinned to himself as he framed his answer, and grinned even wider as he saw a shadow fall over the doorway and heard Caresn's voice asking, "Who is it that you're inviting around then?"

"We were speaking of having R'non come to speak to us both about the next step in forming his new bow," R'dek said, standing, because he knew Caresn and Loren would likely be wanting some time alone now.

" _Your_ new bow?" Caresn asked, looking between R'dek and his lover.

"He, ah... he says he's giving it to me," Loren replied, glancing back at R'dek as if to confirm the truth of it. R'dek nodded encouragingly. "I'm not sure I understand why, quite..."

"There are many reasons," R'dek said, dropping his scraper into his tool pouch and dusting the wood shavings off himself. "If you are still curious, later, I will tell you. For now, however, I have agreed to meet with Rodne for a midday meal. I will just leave this here, for safe keeping, yes?" R'dek leaned the unfinished bow against the wall, near the foot of the bed.

"Aye, alright," Caresn said, sounding a little dazed, as Loren said, "Sure," in a similar manner, at the same time. "Enjoy your meal with Rodne," Caresn concluded as R'dek headed out the door.

"I don't know if you've had anything to eat yet," R'dek heard as he paused outside long enough to hear Caresn's next words to Loren, "but I've brought along some bread stuffed with hard cooked eggs and greens, still warm from the ovens, if you'd fancy any...?"

"That, ah... that sounds pretty good, actually," he heard Loren answer, and R'dek felt his heart lift. 

"Yes!" he shouted with a grin as he headed to the ovens to see if he couldn't get some of that for himself, or if Rodne wasn't already there looking for the same thing. He met Rodne on the way, having already acquired the very item and feeling quite pleased with himself on that account. Still, he was taken completely by surprise when R'dek waylaid him, pushed him into the side of the nearest hut, and kissed the living daylights out of him.

***

As fate would have it, R'dek himself came to be ambushed, in turn, later that evening as he was walking through the snow-bark tree grove on the way back from having concluded a deal with Abram for some leather thong and bindings he would need for the bow. It was dusk -just the hour at which the colors of the visible world begin to fade, and things that ought not be visible may appear, briefly. R'dek was not sure, therefore, that the motion he thought he saw up ahead really was anything or anyone until it shouted, "There you are!" triumphantly, and grabbed him up in a fierce hug.

"Ye bloody miracle worker!" Caresn cried, kissing R'dek on both cheeks and then drawing back so that R'dek could see the glimmer of tears on his face -deeply dimpled in an ecstatic smile.

"Ye've saved him, love!" Caresn grinned. "Ye've made him want life again, and ye planned it didn't you? You knew what you were doing when you went in there to work this morning, ye bloody genius. Admit it!"

R'dek chuckled bashfully, looking down as he smoothed his hair again from where Caresn had mussed it. "The idea came to me," he said, "as I was thinking who would have this first bow of mine. I really had now idea how well it would work; I have never done anything of this sort before, you know."

"He can't take his eyes off the damned thing," Caresn said, shaking his head in wonder. "And his fever's broken, and he's eating again." The healer reached out to take R'dek's hand, blinking away more tears. "Ye've saved my heart; ye know that, don't ye, lad? I owe you everything."

"No, no," R'dek looked up now, meeting Caresn's gaze. "You owe nothing. Caresn, all your life you have helped others, and not only in healing. You know you were the first real friend Rodne ever had? In that way alone you probably saved his life, and in other ways too, I imagine."

"I don't think I'd seen it that way before," Caresn said thoughtfully, "but there's likely truth to it." He turned then, to walk with R'dek, in the direction he'd been going before Caresn had ambushed him. "You headed back to your camp?" Caresn asked as they walked.

"To the firepit," R'dek confirmed. "Seeing as we haven't really got a cook fire in our shelter."

Rodne was there when they arrived, heating up an enormous pot of soup that he'd made a few days ago, and Li'bet was there too, chatting contentedly with him.

"R'dek," she greeted him as he and Caresn approached. "Just the man I was looking for."

"Li'bet," R'dek returned the greeting. "Everyone is looking for me this evening, it seems."

"That's because you're a man worth finding," Caresn said with a wink to Rodne. "But I've another man to find, just in there," he gestured toward his hut, "so I'll be bidding you all a pleasant meal and fair evening."

Everyone said goodnight to Caresn and best wishes to Loren, and R'dek stepped over to where Rodne was stirring his soup by the fire and kissed him gently on the lips. "I hear you're going into the healer business now," Rodne teased as they parted.

"Only a little toolmaker magic," R'dek smiled, gesturing Li'bet to sit beside him on one of the firepit logs. "Has Rodne asked you to join us for dinner yet?" he inquired.

"In fact, he has," Li'bet replied, her eyes sparkling in the firelight. "But I suspect I have you to thank for his good manners these days."

"Right here!" Rodne objected.

"Rodne, do you actually wish to deny that you are an extremely rude man most of the time?" R'dek asked.

"Well, no, of course not," Rodne said, "but you could have the decency to direct personal comments personally, don't you think?"

"Fair enough," said Li'bet. "Rodne, do we have R'dek to thank for any modicum of good manners you do posses?"

"Mmm..." Rodne thought as he tasted the soup. "Probably -not that you and Caresn didn't both try."

Li'bet and R'dek both laughed. "Getting back to me, however," R'dek chuckled. "What was the reason you were looking for me, Li'bet?"

"The reason," she replied, "was that I was hoping you would be able to help with the, ah, horses, that we now seem to have inherited the care of. It seems that a number of them are still wearing their... riding gear, and apparently that's not good for them."

"No, it is not," R'dek nodded. "I thought that this might be the case, but have not been able to see it for myself, and have not thought to ask."

"Well, Shef'hred asked me about it yesterday evening," Li'bet said, "and I promised that I'd find a few people to take care of it. Sitakhus has volunteered, and Yinte, but I thought I would ask you too, as you seem to know at least a little about them. Certainly more than anyone else here except for Shef'hred."

"That is likely so," said R'dek with a nod. "And I would be happy to help. Since we have taken their previous caretakers from them, it does fall upon us to care for these horses, and I would not have them suffer from neglect."

"Gods above!" Rodne grumbled as he presented R'dek and Li'bet each with bowls of soup and then took his own, sitting along side them on the log. "Have you _not_ tried enough risky stunts this summer, R'dek?"

R'dek rolled his eyes, blowing on a spoonful of soup to cool it. "Yes, it is true, horses can be dangerous," he said. "But they are not wolves -and these horses have all been tamed. The three of us can go talk to Shef'hred about which ones are more ill tempered," he turned to Li'bet to explain, "and see if he doesn't know some of their names. That could help."

Li'bet nodded. "He did suggest bringing an apple or beetroot, to make friends with them," she said. "And if they are intelligent enough to know and answer to their names..."

"They most certainly are," R'dek said. "I once traveled some days in the company of a horse and rider, and the creature seemed to understand his rider's very words."

"Right," Rodne said with a roll of his eyes. "Let me know when they start building fires, making tools and talking."

The conversation wandered after that, and when they had all finished their soup and washed up, Li'bet went on her way and Rodne and R'dek returned to their camp beneath the wingseed tree.

"You know," Rodne said, nuzzling the back of R'dek's neck as they curled together in their bedding, warm against the cool night. "What you did with Loren... that was pretty amazing, and Caresn... I don't know what he would have done, if... if..."

"I did what it was in my power to do," R'dek said, turning to kiss Rodne's lips, tasting his mouth happily. "And I am grateful that after having used my power to take so many lives, I have been able to save one."

"You've saved more than one," Rodne told him, pulling him close. "You save mine every day."

They left words behind after that.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Domestic discord in Lakeside, and harmony among the horses.

There was a lake-born fog lying over Lakeside when they woke the next morning, though Rodne knew it would burn off long before midday. Still, there was an uneasy feel to the village that morning, he thought, as he headed to the bakers. The explanation came when he arrived, finding the place awash in gossip.

It seemed the whole northwest quarter of Lakeside had been awakened by a screaming fight between Gefeir and his sister, N'lara, sparked when she announced to her brother that she was taking up with Dirneer, and moving in with him. He and Kadam had decided that it would be better if Dirneer's aged mother, Klesa, would move in with Kadam, who could care for her aunt more easily, and that left her old hut open for Dirneer to move out of the bachelor's lodge and start a family, if he wished.

This he desired very much, it seemed, and he wished to do it with N'lara, who had previously been living with her mother and uncle, caring for them and cooking meals for them and for Gefeir most days. This, most people were saying, was the main reason for Gefeir's displeasure, and the fact that Dirneer was younger than he was. Gefeir seemed to take it as a personal affront that Dirnner had found himself a woman before he had, and that the woman was his sister was an additional insult. N'lara, who had never raised her voice in anger in anyone's memory, had shocked everyone by proclaiming (loudly enough for half the village to hear) that Gefeir was jealous and selfish, and she never wished to cook a meal for him again.

Rodne found all of this, and listening to everyone's opinion on who was wrong and who was right, extremely tedious and, waiting with the crowd of women at the bakers' for the morning's fresh bread, began to consider that, as nice as it was to have fresh bread most mornings, returning to the solitude of his cave, with R'dek, was sounding better and better every day. Still, they had unfinished business here yet to be concluded. R'dek had, of course, foolishly agreed to tend to the raiders' horses, and Rodne was conducting a lengthy trade with Kadam, where he would show her some of his and R'dek's most recent trap making innovations and she would provide him with an as yet undetermined number of fur pelts which Rodne secretly wished to have made into something particularly nice for R'dek for midwinters.

This trade, at least, Rodne could take more pride in than the usual services Lakesiders asked him for, and he was almost looking forward to the time he would spend with Kadam, for all that she was an odd, outspoken woman, and capable of being quite intimidating -not unlike the traveling warrior Teleya, he considered. Curiously, it was Teleya that he found chatting with Kadam, after he had finished his breakfast with R'dek and sent him off on his day's adventures with many warnings to stay safe. The two women seemed quite close, for all that Teleya was still a relative newcomer, but Kadam told him that Teleya and her traveling companion were considering settling in Lakeside now, so maybe Kadam and Teleya had just hit it off really well.

The day passed relatively pleasantly for Rodne, and he found Kadam to be bright and quick to grasp the ideas he sketched out for her with a stick in the dirt. They shared a lunch of apples and smoked duck meat as they worked, and by evening Kadam pronounced herself more than pleased with the day's efforts. She told Rodne that she would be happy enough to trade him enough fox pelts to make R'dek a hood with matching mittens. Rodne had not told her that he'd planned this trade to make a midwinter gift for R'dek, but when he mentioned this she only laughed.

"Please," she said with a generous grin. "When have you ever traded for anything so nice for yourself? You've never come to trade with me before, but last year for midwinters you traded Pretna for that really fancy green tunic we all saw R'dek wearing at the spring festival -looked pretty delicious in it too. Face it Rodne, you're completely besotted with the man and everyone knows it. Honestly though, I think it's kind of sweet."

Rodne had only blushed furiously and stammered out a completely ineffectual excuse, and Kadam had only smiled and slapped him on the back. "Don't sweat it," she said as they parted company. "You'll hear from Pretna when she's finished, in a couple of moons, but I promise neither of us will tell R'dek. He'll be completely surprised."

As discomfiting as it was to have Kadam see through him so easily, it was the idea of how much R'dek would like his midwinters gift that had Rodne smiling all the way back to the firepit where R'dek would be meeting him for dinner. He'd fretted throughout the day about R'dek and the horses, but seeing as how there'd been no news of a mishap so far, it seemed likely that he'd find R'dek safe and sound, just as they'd planned.

There was a fair crowd at the firepit this evening, as an impromptu gathering had formed to celebrate Dirneer and N'lara's starting a new household. It was a full moon too, and the night was clear, if a little chill. That was why R'dek, when Rodne finally found him, was sitting by the fire wrapped in his rabbit fur blanket. He greeted Rodne by inviting him in, as the blanket was easiy large enough to wrap around both of them, and Rodne accepted the invitation eagerly.

Caresn came by a moment later with cups of hot tea for both of them, and Loren came too, sitting on the log beside them and looking much better than he had a few days ago. He and Caresn listened attentively along with Rodne as R'dek explained how today he Sitakhus and Yinte had mostly watched and followed the herd of horses around, from a distance. "So that they may get used to us," he explained. Rodne was perfectly pleased to hear that they were taking a cautious approach with the horses and said so, then went on to ask about R'dek's progress with the longbow.

Someone had gifted Dirneer and N'lara with a pair of geese to celebrate the occasion, and these had been roasting over the fire for some time, so that now there was meat being served out to the friends and family who had gathered. This included Gefeir, who had been keeping to himself for the most part, and his continued poor mood was easy to detect, even from a distance. It was a courageous thing, then, for Dirneer to approach the man, even if it was to offer him a gift of a beautifully carved antler boar's head, strung on a bit of thong as a necklace. Gefeir stared morosely at the offering for a moment before shoving it back into Dirneer's hands.

"If you seek to compensate me for what I am losing, then this falls far short," he said angrily, and loudly enough for everyone around to hear, "and if it is meant to signify the value of my sister to you, then it is far too much. You will soon find out that she is a faithless, self-centered dullard, and you will regret the day you chose her for the rest of your life."

Dirneer could only stand speechless as the man stormed away, and across the fire Rodne could see poor N'lara, her head bowed, hands over her face. Kadam stood beside her with an arm protectively around her shoulder, and stared daggers at Gefeir as he crossed the circle to head back to the bachelor's lodge. By chance, his route took him right past where Rodne and R'dek sat, and no one was more shocked than Rodne when R'dek stood suddenly, placing himself directly in his path.

"Gefeir, my friend," R'dek said, his voice low and urgent. "The anger that burns in you now -the blackness in your heart - it will hurt you worse than you have hurt your sister today, if you do not banish it. I beg of you... you must-"

"Who are you, to say what I must?!" Gefeir cut in angrily, shoving R'dek roughly so that he might have fallen into the fire had not Loren and Rodne caught him. "You haven't earned the right to call me friend, stranger, nor the right to meddle in my personal business!"

"Hey pal," Rodne was hardly aware of standing, too enraged to stop himself from grabbing the hunter's shoulder to turn him. "You know, I can get away with acting like an asshole, because I'm smarter than everyone here," he spat. "You, on the other hand, are just revealing yourself as a completely _pathetic loser,_ " Rodne actually jabbed his finger into Gefeir's chest with each of the last two words, and then leaned even closer to hiss, "And if you ever _touch_ him again I will make you suffer in ways you can't imagine."

Gefeir stared at him silently with what seemed a mixture of horror and loathing for one long moment, then drew his lips back in an ugly sneer. "You keep telling everyone you're smart," he snarled. "As if saying so a bunch of times will make it true, but what you really are, is a trickster and a witch, an unnatural thing, just like those... creatures back in Twin Groves. You... the both of you, you're unnatural and wrong and anyone that had an ounce of sense would have nothing to do with either one of you!!"

The crowd parted hastily when Gefeir turned to leave, and an uncomfortable silence remained for a time after he had left. It was Li'bet, brilliant leader that she was, who broke the dark mood by lifting up her own flask of lightning water -Rodne could easily identify the distinctive shape of the leather bag and it's decorative stopper- and offered it to the gathered friends and families as a blessing for their union. Caresn quickly seized the opportunity to speak a blessing of his own, asking the Gods to grant the couple good fortune and abundance in all good things, and as all present came to echo his words, the happy mood was restored and the evening continued in the proper celebratory manner.

It was just as Rodne and R'dek were standing to head back to their shelter, some time later, to sleep, that Sitakhus caught up with R'dek to remind him that Li'bet's had been the last flask of lightning water left in Lakeside, and that perhaps another trading journey should be arranged before the worst of the winter weather set in. R'dek (and Rodne) concurred and they quickly settled on a plan, Sitakhus departing afterwards to spread this news among the remaining revelers, while Rodne and R'dek wandered contentedly off to bed together.

Little by little, Rodne thought, comfortably wrapped around his lover in their warm bed, things were beginning to settle back down to normal, and soon enough they would go home again. He would have his peace and quiet, and his stars, and his lover, all to himself again, and that was definitely something to look forward to.

Later, Rodne would hear that Gefeir'd had a whole corner of the bachelor's lodge to himself that night, in spite of how crowded the place was.

***

The soft patter or raindrops on the roof of their shelter woke R'dek some hours before dawn. He snuggled closer to Rodne and drifted back to sleep again, his altered plans for the morrow jumbling together with visions of the half completed long bow and other constructions he had not yet begun. By the time he woke, to a gray, rainy day, some part if his brain, while sleeping, had worked out that the change in weather would probably make the day's task easier. The rain would likely hide their scents from the wary horses, he speculated, and would definitely hide their sounds.

He said as much to Rodne as he rose and dressed, and Rodne mumbled sleepily at him to be careful, kissing him with drowsy affection before he left. R'dek had agreed to breakfast with Yinte's family, at their hut, and Sitakhus would meet them there as well. The three of them, along with Meera, Yinte and his four younger siblings (Hallen was already out fishing), ate a hearty breakfast of cooked grain porridge with dried fruit pieces, while they discussed their strategy, and how the rain might effect their efforts.

When they left, Meera sent them all off with a lunches of flatbread rolled around goat cheese and strips of smoked fish, and as they passed through the village they asked various passers by where the horses had last been seen. Eventually they were told that they'd been spotted south of the lake, so they headed that way, passing Shef'hred's encampment as they went. They exchanged greetings with the raider, and Ml'lar, who was watching him this morning, and Shef'hred reiterated his sincere appreciation for what they were setting out to do.

The others, R'dek knew, didn't really understand the reason for Shef'hred's apparent devotion to these creatures, especially when he had shown such an uncaring face about nearly everything else. R'dek understood, however, because he had been around horses before and, more importantly, been around people who had horses. The creatures inspired astonishing devotion in those who rode them and lived with them, and R'dek had a feeling that many of the people of Lakeside would soon come to understand those feelings for themselves.

R'dek already understood the admiration people seemed to feel around horses -they were indeed beautiful, graceful creatures- but unlike many people, R'dek felt no desire to mount and ride such a creature himself. He had, once, riding behind the mounted traveling companion he'd once journeyed with. The fellow had wanted to make some time along a particular stretch of road, and insisted that R'dek ride with him so that they could move faster. They'd even gone to a faster gait at one point, the rider not content with his horse's walking speed, and R'dek had been bounced around the back of the saddle till he thought his eyeballs would rattle out of his head. His ass and thighs had ached unbearably the next morning, to add to the pleasure of the experience.

It was not so much this discomfort that troubled R'dek, however, as the sheer size of the beasts, and how high off the ground he sat when mounted on one. He found himself tremendously uncomfortable, being so much at the mercy of such creatures, no matter how 'smart' they might be, and came to the conclusion that riding would never be for him. This did not mean, however, that he could not care for the animals well being, nor appreciate their finer qualities, for this he very much did. Yesterday he and his fellow horse tenders had spotted the one animal with her foreleg tangled in the straps that her rider had used to guide her -Shef'hred had called them 'reins'- and the vision had torn at R'dek's heart. It was wrong to see such creatures suffer, and R'dek was altogether pleased to work at putting an end to it.

The tall, grain-bearing grasses near the village had been harvested now, and the three of them strode quickly over the short cut stalks, but they soon moved into the taller grasses as they approached the calmly grazing herd. R'dek and his companions quickly became soaked under the steady drizzle as they walked between the yellow heads of grain, bowed down with their own weight, and that of the rainwater. The weather was, thankfully, not so cold, and there was not a breath of breeze, so being so wet was not any particular discomfort.

R'dek, Sitakhus and Yinte spoke quietly between themselves as the herd came into sight, just loud enough that the horses could hear them coming, for R'dek wanted them not to be startled. Also, he had an idea he wanted to try. "I would like to see," he said when they had come within a couple hundred paces of the herd, "if horses can count."

"The two of you," he explained when Sitakhus and Yinte had both given him confused looks, "continue talking, and walk around the herd in that direction, while I walk this way." He pointed in the opposite direction. "The... stallion," he thought that was what Shef'hred had called the herd's leader," he will be watching you, while I draw close to her." Now he indicated the unfortunate horse with the tangled reins, miserably staring at the grass she couldn't lower her head to reach, standing a little apart from the others.

Yinte and Sitakhus nodded, raising their voices just a little as they renewed their conversation and strolled in the direction R'dek had indicated. R'dek crouched down as they left, waiting a moment before moving away, keeping close to the standing grass the horses hadn't walked over yet. He listened carefully to the voices of his companions fading as they grew more distant, the gentle patter of falling rain all around him, and the quiet snorts and nickers of the herd to his left. R'dek circled the herd, spiraling gradually closer till he stood only a handful of paces from his target.

He stood then, slowly revealing himself to her, and then he began to speak softly, falling, without thinking, into his first language, feeling it in his heart more than any others he had learned later in life. She lifted her head a little to gaze at him, but there was something hopeless and defeated in her eyes that made R'dek's heart ache.

"*Hush, hush, my little beauty,*" he spoke softly as he approached, in a tongue no one understood save for himself, and perhaps the creature he addressed. "*I am here to help. I am here to free you. Do not be afraid.*"

He reached into the pouch at his belt to draw out a piece of apple, placing it in the center of his open palm as Shef'hred had shown him, and slowly... slowly stretched out his hand toward her. The horse's nostrils fluttered, and R'dek heard her sharp breath as she sniffed out the nature of his offering. He could see her torn, for a moment, between distrust and hunger, but hunger won out in the end, and then there was a brush of velvet lips against his palm and the apple was gone. R'dek felt his heart lift and grinned with quiet joy.

"*It's good; you see? You see? Will you have another?*" With slow, careful movements, he reached into his pouch again, and presented another offering, stepping just a little closer. She did not hesitate at all this time, quickly reaching across to lip the bit of apple off R'dek's hand.

"*Yes, yes, little beauty. You see, I will not hurt you. I bring you good things.*" R'dek moved another step closer and though the horse's look grew a little wary, she did not move away. Once again he extended his hand with another piece of apple, and she had it in the blink of an eye, but she'd had to come quite close to take it this time -close enough for R'dek to easily reach the straps fastened around her head, the ones connected to the reins.

Calmly, he reached for the handle of the bronze knife with his left hand, while extending yet another piece of apple towards the ensnared horse. Just as always, she was quick, but R'dek was quicker. The moment he felt her lips touch his palm, his hands moved like lightning, snatching at the straps with one, while the other brought the knife up, slipping under the main leather strap to sever it neatly. She jerked her head away hard then, pulling the cut end of the strap out of his hand, but only a second later the other fastenings in the straps came undone, and the whole thing fell away.

The creature snorted in surprise, and R'dek suppressed an urge to shout with joy at his success. She shook her head then, vigorously, and without further ado, lowered her head to green grass stalks at her feet and began tearing at them ravenously. R'dek felt his heart soar as he watched her eat, and then, murmuring continued comforts, slowly approached her flank, where a saddle remained fastened.

The dusty brown colored creature continued eating, paying not the least attention to R'dek now, and it was almost too easy to slip his hand, and then his knife, under the heavy leather belly band that held the riding seat in place, and slice it away. It fell to the ground with a thump, and R'dek grabbed it up, along with the tangled remains of the head straps, and hauled them all out from under her feet, stepping back and away, now that he had done what he came to do.

The horse actually stopped eating when she felt the saddle fall away, lifting her head abruptly before shuddering all over and nickering loudly. She turned her head to stare at R'dek then, her eyes wide and observing -memorizing, R'dek thought. She will remember me, I think, he mused, and smiled at his sentiment. One down, he counted to himself as the horse returned to eating enthusiastically, twelve to go.

He met up with Yinte and Sitakhus on the other side of the heard, gazing at a creature who looked nearly as miserable as the horse R'dek had just helped. This was the other stallion Shef'hred had told them about, with a coat the color of fire, and his saddle loose and hanging under his belly. They greeted him with grins when they saw the saddle and other gear he carried with him, waving but not shouting lest it startle the wary and bad tempered horse.

"I think I have made a new friend," R'dek said, setting the gear he carried down near a brier thicket that stood nearby. "Where is the other stallion?"

"You mean Jumper?" Yinte asked. Unlike R'dek, the fisherman's son was keen to learn to ride, and had hung on Shef'hred's every word as he had spoken of his mount. "He's gone back towards where you were, probably to check out what you were doing."

"Well then he'll know we're just here to help," Sitakhus said, " _if_ he's really as smart as Shef'hred seems to think."

"Let us present him with more evidence then," R'dek said confidently. "And we can see if my technique with the ladies works as well for this fellow here."

"The girl horses are called 'mares'," Yinte said with a roll of his eyes. "Weren't you listening to Shef'hred at all?"

R'dek laughed, beckoning Yinte to follow him in approaching the stallion. "I thought I was, but evidently not as attentively as I might," he said. "Get a piece of food out for him, and you can try feeding him, if you remember what Shef'hred said about that."

Yinte did, and when the two of them had come close enough to reach him, Yinte stretched out his hand with a piece of yellow beet, R'dek crouching beside him. Unlike the mare, this animal had not been starving, but the scent of the sweet beetroot was enticing nonetheless. He stood a little longer, just smelling, then darted forward to snatch the treat from Yinte's hand. The lad's eyes went wide with the thrill of it, but he restrained the yelp of joy R'dek could tell lay behind his wide grin.

R'dek nudged them both a step closer. "Now another," he said softly. "And speak to him. Say nice things."

Yinte laughed softly, pulling out another beetroot and extending his hand again. "Hello you," he said a little shyly. "Hello Spark. Shef'hred told me your name; I think it's cool. My name's Yinte, if you want to know. You want another beetroot? I've got lots; you can have as many as you want..."

Once again, Spark's head darted out, quick as a snake, to take Yinte's offering, but he danced back away as soon as he had it. "We'll stay here," R'dek said. "Make him come to us."

They did just that, and though it took some time, and nearly a double handful of beet pieces, the skittish creature finally let them both close enough to fulfill their tasks. They did both at once, R'dek standing by the stallion's flank, Yinte near his head, and on R'dek's signal they struck. Yinte had the head straps -reminding R'dek that it was called a 'halter'- cutting them away with his stone knife just as R'dek had done with the mare, and R'dek sliced away the offending saddle.

Spark squealed and leaped away the moment he felt their hands on him, but R'dek and Yinte's knives were faster, and Spark jumped away free of all his impediments. R'dek and Yinte laughed and slapped each other on the back as they dragged the gear away, and Spark stood, stunned for a moment, then neighed loudly, shook himself all over, and raced away, kicking his heels as he went, evidently overjoyed with his returned freedom.

Sitakhus got to try his hand next, while Yinte watched, and after that they split up, moving around the edges of the herd, liberating the animals that seemed the most amenable to being approached. They took a break at midday to eat their lunches, sitting on the pile of saddles and harnesses they'd gathered and watching the herd -watching Jumper watch them. So far he had kept himself at a distance, but he had not urged the herd away. He was allowing them to do this, that was for certain.

After lunch, they worked until a little before dusk, when they ran out of treats, but by then they had removed the gear from nine horses, which R'dek thought no small accomplishment. They bundled the salvaged saddles and harnesses and dragged them back to Lakeside as they went home, delivering them to Aberam who, as the village leather worker, had first dibs on becoming the village saddle maker.

R'dek headed back to Shef'hred's camp last thing, to report, before going back to his own camp and dinner with Rodne.

 

****


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A productive day comes to a pleasant end.

"Nine?" Shef'hred had said with frank admiration. "And one of them was Spark? That's pretty impressive, Toolmaker. You wanna tell me again that you've never worked with horses before?"

"I haven't, I promise you," R'dek said with a laugh, "though I have been around them once or twice before. It does not seem so complicated to me, to know what to do around them. They are only very honest creatures."

"Well, you've got that much right," Shef'hred replied. "How about Jumper? You give him a try yet?"

R'dek shook his head. "He does not interfere," he said, "and I think he may understand that we are doing good, but he does not let us come near... yet. He will make us help him last, I am sure."

"Probably right," Shef'hred said with a wry smile. "It's what I'd do."

"If you would come with us," R'dek suggested, "I'm sure he'd let you close without any trouble." But Shef'hred shook his head.

"Li'bet doesn't want me going near the horses yet," he said.

"Why?" R'dek asked. "Surely she doesn't think you would flee?"

"She doesn't, and I know you don't," he answered with a resigned shrug, "but most everyone else in the village thinks that I'm..." He shrugged again, understandably unwilling to go into the details of what a lot of Lakesiders thought he was. "Anyway, she thinks I need to wait a little, till more people can see that I'm capable of doing something... useful."

R'dek recalled that Shef'hred had spent the day hauling logs from the forest on the north shore of the lake, down to the lake to be floated across to where the new dock would be built. It would have been hard work, and now that he thought of it, Shef'hred did look a little tired. "How did that go today?" R'dek asked. "Being useful."

Shef'hred gave one of his characteristic shrugs. "Done harder work breaking horses," he said. "And this was more like the kind of work all the men did when we moved camp. Nobody gets out of that, so I suppose there is one kind of labor that even raiders do."

R'dek answered Shef'hred's wry smile with one of his own, considering whether to push and make the ex-raider answer the other part of what R'dek had asked. Since his accomplishments with the horses today seemed to make Shef'hred more kindly disposed towards him, R'dek decided to dare it. "You were treated well?" he asked, straight out.

He was answered, initially, with another shrug. "Mostly," Shef'hred said. "Hallen and Ml'lar, they were pretty cool to work with, actually, some of the others... not so much."

"Was Gefeir among them?" R'dek asked, testing an unhappy hunch. Shef'hred answered this time with a sigh.

"That guy," he said, "seemed to have a serious problem with me, but what was kinda weird was that he was _such_ an incredible asshole that it made the other guys back off. Even the ones who looked like they didn't want to trust me any farther than they could throw me seemed to think he was going a bit too far."

"I suppose one could see that as a hopeful sign," R'dek offered.

"Yeah, I suppose that finding only one guy who actually wants to kill me in a village I tried to burn and rob is pretty remarkable," Shef'hred said, only half kidding, it seemed to R'dek. He had come to notice, since getting to know that raider, that he said the most important things when he seemed to be joking.

"Did he actually try?" R'dek asked, picking up on one of those potentially important things. "To kill you, I mean?" In the kind of work they'd been doing, there would have been plenty of opportunities for a fatal or near fatal 'accident' to occur.

"I, ah, think he might have tried to try," Shef'hred said after an uncomfortable pause. "There seemed to be some sort of angry conversation between a bunch of the unfriendlies just before lunch, and then Gefier ended up eating lunch all by himself. I don't think he's the kind of guy who gives up easily though."

"You will be careful then?" R'dek said, venturing a hand on Shef'hred's shoulder. "Jumper... he is not the only one who would be very unhappy to lose you, yes?"

"So I've been told," Shef'hred replied, seeming as much puzzled by this fact as anything. "I'll be sticking with Hallen and Ml'lar tomorrow, anyhow."

"That would be wise," R'dek said. "They are both good men, and steadfast. You can trust them."

"Haven't got much of a choice, have I?" Shef'hred replied, and though his tone was light, there was no mistaking the hint of bitterness in his words. There was nothing to be said to that, so R'dek bid him good evening, and headed off to find Rodne at their camp.

When he found Rodne, however, the man wrinkled up his nose as soon as R'dek drew near, and declared that R'dek stank like wet horse, commanding him to wash and change before he came any closer. R'dek laughed all the way to the lake and shortly after he had shucked off all his clothes and immersed himself, Rodne appeared on the shore with a cloth to dry him and hide to keep them both dry on the walk back to their camp.

Caresn and Loren invited them to share their dinner in their hut, which Rodne and R'dek happily accepted, and R'dek and Loren spent the whole of it regaling the others on the topic of the longbow. Rodne seemed honestly interested, for the most part, and Caresn was simply elated to hear his lover's voice filled with such enthusiasm for anything.

The conversation continued after the meal was finished and the last cup of tea drunk, the four friends truly enjoying each other's company after a particularly good day. The mood grew a bit warmer as the evening progressed, however, and soon enough both couples' thoughts turned to more intimate occupations. Rodne and R'dek departed then, dashing through the drizzle to the more spartan comforts of their own shelter.

They warmed the space up quickly, and most effectively, their cries and moans muffled somewhat by the falling rain. Curling up to sleep, sated, in his lover's arms, R'dek listened to the lulling sounds of the rain, felt the warmth of the body surrounding him, and the love in both their hearts, and saw, in his memory, the steely eye of a soot black stallion, watching him...

***

Caresn and Loren saw Rodne and R'dek off into the rainy night with fond farewells, then turned immediately to each other, pulling one another into a warm embrace. With nothing but joy in his heart, Caresn welcomed Loren's warmth and strength, reveling in the feel of him, all around him. They'd been tentative with each other since yesterday, when it became clear that Loren really was on his way to recovery -Caresn not wanting to tax his lover so soon, and Loren strangely reluctant, as though he'd committed some transgression.

Caresn had no idea what that could be, but he was determined to banish that reluctance one way or the other, and that likely meant finding the reason for it. He stood to add a little more fuel to the fire, to chase the bit of chill that had come in as their guests had gone out, then returned to sit at his lover's side on the bed, taking both his hands in his own.

"It was a good day today, aye?" he asked, taking in his lover's face, lit by firelight.

"Yeah..." Loren said softly, and thoughtful smile on his lips. "Yeah, it was."

"Will ye tell me something then, love?" Caresn asked. Loren nodded, his dark eyes serious. "I'm more overjoyed than I can say, to see you ready to live your life again, but ye keep looking at me as though ye've done something wrong, and I'm sure I'd soon forgive you for it, if only I knew what it was."

Loren cast his eyes down then, but his grip on Caresn's hands became stronger still. "It's... a couple of things, actually," he said, "and maybe you'll think it's stupid..."

"Never, love," Caresn assured him. "Please, just tell me."

Loren nodded, but remained silent for a spell, still staring down at their joined hands. "You should have been enough," he said at last. "I know how much... I know how you feel. I could see how it was tearing you apart that I couldn't get better... and that should have been enough. I should have... I don't know, been able, somehow... but... I couldn't." Caresn hated seeing the self-recrimination on Loren's face, but he remained silent, letting his lover have his say.

"You have to be thinking now that... my being a hunter is more important to me than... you... than... your love..." It took all of his courage, Caresn could see, for Loren to raise his eyes now to meet his, and say the words he spoke next. "It isn't. I swear, Caresn... you... I do love you... and I could never have made it this far without you... but somehow I couldn't make that last step with you alone. I don't know why, and... and I'm sorry."

"Ah love," Caresn said, reaching up to caress his lover's cheek. "You needn't fret over this, I promise. I know what's in your heart, and I love everything there, including your hunting. You think I didn't grieve to fear it lost? It is a part -a terribly important part- of who you are, just as I am, just as you're a part of me. I'm not so jealous that I can't honor that part of you, or that must demand that my part of you take precedent over all the other parts. That wouldn't be right or fair."

Caresn opened his arms to take Loren in, and the hunter came, happily, laying his head on Caresn's shoulder with a relieved sigh. They sat together comfortably in this manner for a little while, Caresn stroking his fingers though his lover's hair, until he spoke again. "You said there were a couple of things?" he reminded gently.

Loren nodded, then drew himself up with a sigh. "Just before I... left, for Twin Groves... when we were fighting," he began unhappily. "I... I said something... I don't even remember what it was, but it... it hurt you terribly, I could see that. I didn't mean to; I know I didn't... but I did somehow, and I... I never want to do that... to hurt you like that again... but I don't know what it was... or why..."

"Aye, you did," Caresn admitted, pulling Loren in close again so he would know he was forgiven. "Frightened more than hurt, in truth, but I know you never meant to do it. You couldn't have known... what those words meant to me, and you should. But it's a bit of a long tale," Caresn lifted his hand to Loren's face again, brushing a thumb over his lips, "and I'm not in so much of a story telling mood at the moment." Caresn let the heat he felt come into his gaze, and was altogether pleased to see it answered in Loren's. They had not made love since Loren had returned from his ill fated voyage to Twin Groves, and this was the first time Caresn had felt the desire rise in both of them. He was not about to squander the moment.

"I, ah... I think I may have an idea what it is that you are in the mood for, eh?" Loren said with a warm grin, lifting his head to take Caresn's mouth with his own. To Caresn's great joy, the tentativeness was gone, and here was the Loren he knew, forceful, demanding and confident. He opened to him, happily, letting his lover take charge.

Loren's hands were strong on his face, holding him, taking him, and Caresn let himself be taken, surrendering to the hunter's strength with joy. He fell back on the bed without resistance when Loren pushed him, stretching out in the furs to let Loren have his way. This he most certainly did, straddling Caresn's body to cover him, like a predator covering it's prey, and pushing his tunic up and out of the way, though Caresn also saw that Loren remained careful of his bulkily wrapped and immobilized foot.

Loren kissed his way over the healer's face and down his broad, smooth chest, pausing to gently bite his nipples. Caresn cried out, writhing with pleasure under his lover's body, and feeling his heart leap at the nearly feral grin on his lover's firelit face. The heat in that grin ignited everywhere in Caresn, making him desperate with want, and making his manhood hard within his loincloth.

"Sweet love, beautiful hunter," Caresn begged. "Let me see you... let me touch you, please..."

Loren gave a huff of a laugh to see Caresn so desperate, but he had always been an indulgent lover, and so whisked his tunic off a moment later, allowing Caresn to lift his hands and touch as he desired. Caresn understood his backwardness most profoundly at these moments, aware that most men liked to feel softness and curves in the flesh under their hands. For him, however, nothing could be more arousing than to feel the hard planes of his lover's body, to trace the sharp contours of firm muscles. Caresn moaned to feel these things, lifting his head to kiss whatever he could reach, which turned out to be Loren's smooth shoulder.

"My healer," Loren sighed, angling his head so that he could capture Caresn's lips with his own again. "My lover... you save me... Every time you love me you save my life, make it anew."

As a shaman, Caresn knew this to be a feature of any such... intimate exchange, and he felt it himself at times -a heady, intoxicating sense of power. The power of their respective roles, that of hunter and healer, added to it, and up until now Caresn had only guessed that Loren might understand a little of it. His words now revealed that he understood much more, and Caresn felt the strength of that power flare up in him, quite suddenly.

"Yes... yes, oh love!" Caresn cried, his voice all but breaking with desire. "Please... please..."

Loren's hands were shaking as he now moved to hastily undo Caresn's loincloth, and his own. The healer came to see, however, that the unsteadiness in his lover's limbs was caused by fatigue as much as passion, and so when he rolled aside to get away from his discarded garments, he pulled Loren down after him. The hunter came to settle behind him, on his side, his hard cock pressing against Caresn's arsecheeks, which was pretty close to where he wanted it.

"You spoke the truth, lover," Loren whispered, reaching for the pot of goose fat. "There is no rightness in the hunting of men, not for me. I've been made unclean, and must purify myself before I turn to hunting beasts again." Caresn could feel one of Loren's hands reach over him, teasing his nipples again before moving down to gently caress his rigid, wanting cock.

"Yes, love, yes..." Caresn moaned, knowing what Loren was leading to, and wanting it.

"You know..." Loren growled in his ear, while Caresn cried, "Gods yes..." and other less coherent things. "You know how I will cleanse myself in your body, how I will bury my spear deep within you, shaman, and purify it again..." And there was Loren's slicked finger seeking his opening, leading the way, clearly demonstrating the hunter's intent.

"Oh Gods Above, yes!" Caresn cried loudly, lifting one knee to give Loren easier access. His lover's finger was quickly joined by a second, preparing the way, stretching and slicking him. It had been more than a handful of days since they'd last been together, and much longer than that since Caresn had had Loren inside him. Loren took his time, however, and his fingers were knowing, reaching in to touch Caresn's secret places, wringing pleasure from him.

When Loren had three fingers inside him, pressed deep, and Caresn felt no discomfort, Loren knew it, curling forward to kiss Caresn's ear and whisper, "Are you ready for my spear, shaman?"

"Please... yes!" Caresn gasped, arching back against his lover, moaning as the fingers were withdrawn. It was only a moment before he felt the slick hardness of Loren's cock -his hunter's spear- pressed against his opening, stretching him further still, and then entering, penetrating. Caresn groaned long and loud as he was thus impaled, feeling Loren's cock push deeper and deeper inside him.

Loren's cry, as he buried himself in his lover, was a little less than human. It was harsh growl of the predator and Caresn was his prey. "I have you now," Loren rasped. "You're mine... mine... mine..."

Loren began to thrust, hard and deep with every guttural cry, one arm wrapped firmly around Caresn's torso, pinning him so that he could not escape, the other on his hips, holding him steady as he fucked him. It was the strength of Loren's life that filled Caresn, piercing his body again and again, and Caresn could only wail with the joy of it, surrendering utterly.

"Are you ready to die shaman?" Loren's voice was all but unrecognizable, but Caresn knew it, knew him, and was not at all afraid.

"Yes..." he sobbed between panting breaths. "Yes!"

"Then we will die together," Loren rasped, his arm around Caresn growing tighter, almost crushing in its strength. His other hand relinquished Caresn's hip and reached over to grasp his cock, slicking it with the generous amounts of precum he found there.

So overwhelmed had Caresn been by the sensations of Loren's cock inside him, the heat of Loren's hand closing around his sex nearly undid him. He cried aloud, like some wounded prey, feeling, knowing its immanent death, and rejoicing in it. Caresn felt his own body spasm in pleasure at the same time as he felt Loren's thrusting become rapider, more desperate. Loren's breath was harsh in his ear, the hand stroking his cock moved in time with the thundering beats of his laboring heart, with the thrusts of Loren's hard flesh, burying itself in his willing body.

Caresn felt the 'death' -the Little Death- that Loren had warned him of drawing near, but the dying prey had no words, and so Caresn had none save for a long, wailing 'death' cry as his completion at last overcame him. His body thrashed in the throes of his climax, and he heard Loren's roar of completion come a heartbeat later.

Caresn felt not only the ecstasy of his completion, but the searing force of life, that erupted from his lover's body, and spilled from his own, like the life's blood of the dying prey. It burned through them both -a purifying fire that branded them as one- each a half of a greater whole. It seemed right and natural, then, to know that Loren was lifting his hand to his mouth to lick away the measure of Caresn's spending that had fallen there, murmuring, "Mine..." in a still somewhat feral voice.

Caresn could feel Loren still inside him as the sensations of his climax faded, and he was loath to have them part just yet, turning his head to seek a kiss from his lover. Loren's kiss tasted of his own musky essence, and of the new, fierce life that burned between them, and they both moaned a little at that echoed remembrance of the forces they had conjured up in their lovemaking. It was, Caresn considered, decidedly the most intense sex, and possibly the most remarkable magical working he had ever experienced, and he wondered how much of it Loren understood.

It was the need to meet his lover's eyes and know the answer to this question that compelled Caresn to let go of that part of Loren still inside him, shifting as Loren slid free to roll and face his love. Caresn had all the answer he needed as he saw Loren's eyes all but shining with new life in the dark of their hut, and he reached up to to touch his face gently.

"You really weren't joking, before," Caresn said, wonder coloring his words, thinking of Loren's earlier, seemingly kidding remark about 'letting the shaman thrust his spear into him'.

"No, I wasn't," Loren said with a tender smile. "I deal in death, Caresn, and you deal in life. I'd never have become Master Huntsman if I didn't understand what that really means."

"Then you've been wiser than I," Caresn said. "I've been so used to no one understanding this part of my life, of who I am... I never even thought to look for it in you."

"Wise?" Loren chuckled in surprise. "That's not a word I'd use to describe myself recently. Caresn, I'd be dead now if it weren't for you, and I'd have no one to blame for it but myself."

"That's as maybe," Caresn said, "but what we just did... love, I've never felt such power in a working, and I can tell you, it wasn't by my design."

"And you think it was mine?" Loren asked, and then they both fell silent in astonishment. Slowly, Caresn moved to lay a hand over his lover's heart.

"He's here," Caresn said with quiet reverence. "The Great Hunter... just as the Healer dwells here with me. I was a fool not to see it."

Loren only shook his head, laying his own hand over Caresn's heart. "Don't tell me you're surprised to learn that the Hunter is so good at hiding himself... even from me."

"We'll both be wiser now, that's an easy promise to keep," Caresn said, tilting his head up to kiss Loren's face.

"Oh hell yes," Loren said, finding Caresn's mouth to kiss with the deepest of affection. They kissed a little more after that, finding that the rest of what they had to say to each other was better expressed in this way. Loren pulled the furs up over them as the fire died down and the room grew cooler, and then they grew drowsy under their warmth, curling together eventually, to sleep.

 

***


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shef'hred, meet Lakeside -Lakeside, Shef'hred.

Someone had set up the roof of the usual winter shelter over the bakers' tables near the village green that morning, Elizabeth observed, and knew it to be a sign of the turning year. The Autumnal Day of Balance, when day and night came in equal length, was only a handful of days away, she'd heard Rodne say, and she felt the truth of it in her bones.

Li'bet had seen enough summers pass that, for her, this expression now held some literal truth, as well. Mornings like this one, wet and cold with a promise of colder temperatures still to come later in the day, left her hips and knees aching slightly, though a brisk walk and a cup of hot tea usually put things to rights soon enough. Her brief, brisk walk this morning had been to come here, to the bakers, and here too were the usual assortment villagers as well as a number of the men who would be working on rebuilding the dock, all taking their breakfast.

She'd heard back from several of the latter, about how well Shef'hred had done with this task, and most all of these reports had been positive. Despite his spoken misgivings about doing arduous physical labor, the former raider had evidently pitched right in and pulled more than his own weight. The only complaints she'd heard weren't about Shef'hred, but about the handful of men who seemed to resent his presence, and had occasionally acted with the intention of inconveniencing the man, or worse, endangering him.

Li'bet had a good idea of who these men were, but she knew better than to confront them directly. The better course would be to present them with situations in which they must either come around to behaving in a more civilized manner, or reveal their disgraceful behavior before all the village. Given this choice, Li'bet had learned, most men will take the path of restraint, and those who could not, ought to be known.

With this end in mind, Li'bet did not go directly to the bakers, but went instead to Shef'hred's 'camp'. She found him there with R'non, stretching after having gone on a run with the taciturn warrior. She did wonder if Teleya and her companion would eventually leave Lakeside to continue on their quest, though she would be entirely pleased if they chose to stay. Certainly, their continued cordial behavior with Shef'hred ought to have convinced anyone in Lakeside that the man was no savage, but logic was not always a factor in such things.

For many, proof would have to come repeatedly and continually over a long period of time, and for Li'bet, this meant that she would have to wage a campaign on Shef'hred's behalf. Today, therefore, she would not bring breakfast to Shef'hred's camp, for him to eat in isolation. She would bring him, instead, to the bakers, to join the other Lakesiders there in their usual routine. She wanted people to begin to see him as part of their community, and breakfast at the bakers was a daily feature of many Lakesiders' lives.

Shef'hred, unsurprisingly, was a little uneasy about the prospect. "I don't know if that's really such a good idea," he said reluctantly. "I mean... it's bound to disrupt things somewhat, and where I come from, people generally prefer a more peaceful breakfast."

"Here too," Li'bet said with a reassuring smile. "Though they tend to take it with a heavy dose of gossip. We'll just be giving them something new to talk about."

"Oh joy," Shef'hred said, grimacing slightly.

"R'non and I will be on hand to keep your honor intact," Li'bet said, her smile widening. "Come on. I know you must be hungry after your run."

This, of course, was indisputable, and so Shef'hred gave in, walking with careful casualness between Li'bet and R'non, through the village to the bakers.

People were, or course, quite used to seeing Li'bet here, and they'd even grown accustomed to R'non by now, so when the three of them came together people didn't notice Shef'hred right away. He followed Li'bet and R'non right up to the table where a number of loaves were cooling, with Kimma watching over them and handing them off to those who were meant to have them.

"Good morning Headwoman," the baker said brightly, preparing one of the larger loaves for her to take. "Will you be feeding your savage again this morning?"

Li'bet winced slightly, but then heard Shef'hred speak from behind her. "Actually," he said with that skillfully studied amiability, "the savage will be feeding himself this morning."

"Oh!" Kimma flushed bright red and almost dropped the loaf she was handing to Li'bet. "Th-then this is... is for you," she said, flustered. "Trinka said t-to give these ones... w-with hard cooked eggs and... and cheese, to the men working on... on the dock."

"Thank you," Shef'hred said, pouring on the charm as he took the bread from the poor woman's hands. "I'm sure it will be just as delicious as yesterday's." Kimma only flushed more deeply and looked away.

"Kimma," Li'bet relieved her with a request. "Did you make any of those dried fruit breads this morning?"

"Oh, yes, Headwoman," the baker replied. "They'll just be coming out of the oven in a little bit."

"Perfect," Li'bet said. "Just sing out when they're done." She stood back to let the next person, which was R'non, come to the bakers table, and now Kimma's smile grew very bright indeed, though her eyes remained downcast. So, R'non was the newest object of Kimma's affection, it would seem, Li'bet reflected. At least, she probably stood a better chance with him than with Loren.

Li'bet now directed Shef'hred to an open spot on one of the sheltered grass mats that someone had laid down yesterday, near where Rodne and R'dek were sitting. Rodne, because he was contributing to the dock rebuilding, apparently merited one of the egg and cheese loaves, in spite of the fact that he was likely doing no heavy lifting, but he was sharing it with R'dek, who Li'bet knew would be doing demanding enough work chasing down the raiders' horses. He was explaining this to Rodne, or perhaps reassuring him about it, as Li'bet and Shef'hred, and eventually R'non, came to sit.

"It's true," he was saying, "that the creatures which were likely to be friendlier were the ones we took care of yesterday, but these animals really are quite intelligent, Rodne. All night long the ones who still have their gear on will have been seeing how the others who let us close are much happier now. They will remember that it was men who they let put those saddles and halters on them in the first place, and they will remember that men come with good things to eat as well."

"Couldn't have put that better myself," Shef'hred complimented R'dek as he sat. "You keep those treats coming and the most ornery nag will come around eventually. They're all big softies at heart, really."

"Softies with lethal feet and big, sharp teeth," Rodne groused, but Li'bet knew Rodne's serious grousing from when he was just keeping up appearances.

"Didn't say you shouldn't respect 'em," Shef'hred said with a grin, breaking open his bread so that a cloud of cheese scented steam escaped. "But then they do tell me that you're supposed to be the super smart guy."

"Well, if they tell you that then they're not wrong... about that, anyway," Rodne said, unabashedly. "You're working on rebuilding the dock, right?" he continued. "Did Hallen explain the new design to you?"

"Yeah, he did, as a matter of fact," Shef'hred said, blowing on his piece of bread to cool it, showing he was clever enough to know that the freshly melted cheese could really burn if you weren't careful. Hallen had explained Rodne‘s plans to Li'bet too, and she was keen to see them set in place. If it worked as intended, the new dock would float, as the level of the lake rose and fell over the course of a year, but be held in place by a set of vertical braces. It was a novel design to Li'bet, and apparently to Shef'hred as well.

"Never seen one that worked quite like that," Shef'hred was saying, "but it seems like it'll be pretty swell if it works."

"It will," Rodne said with indisputable certainty, "and you never saw anything like it before because I thought of it myself. Consider yourself privileged to be one of the few lucky enough to be building it."

"Oh, I do," Shef'hred said with such mock solemnity that Li'bet was hard pressed not to burst out laughing. She was spared any further need for restraint when she heard Brinna call out that the fruit bread was out of the oven and so was able to excuse herself, though not before she heard R'dek break out in a merry chuckle.

She was returning to the others with her steaming hot bread when she spotted Kubia, making his way across the green with the aid of a crutch, as he'd burned himself badly while putting out fires during the battle. He'd done much to save several of the other huts in the village, but ironically, his had been beyond saving, despite the injuries he'd gotten in the attempt.

"Headwoman," he greeted her pleasantly. "I see that... Shef'hred has come to join us for breakfast this morning. Do you... would it be alright if I spoke to him?"

"I don't see why not," Li'bet said, trying not to sound amused.

Kubia nodded nervously and crutched along beside her till they came to where she'd been sitting. "Shef'hred," she said, introducing them as she sat. "This is Kubia, one of our fishermen."

"Pleased to meet you," Shef'hred said, setting down his bread to open his hands to the man.

"And I... to meet you," Kubia said, trying not to sound nervous and not entirely succeeding. "When I heard that you had come here," he continued after a pause to nerve himself up to it, "I... I wanted to come too... to give you my... our thanks for your gift."

"Thanks...?" Shef'hred said after a long pause, struggling, Li'bet could see, to keep a frown in check.

"They said... Li'bet told us," Kubia clarified, "that it was your choice to give your... ornaments to those of us who had... losses. Li'bet has told you that I am a fisherman here... but she has not told you that I am... not the luckiest of fishermen, and now," he gestured down at himself with a bandaged hand, "I am more unlucky still. I will not be well enough to work until the ice has come upon the lake, and my family lost our home in the battle. We would have to live the whole winter on borrowing and charity, but now I have traded your gift for the labor of three men to build my family a new home, and for stores of food and firewood to keep us warm and fed for the whole of the winter. This... this is why I have to thank you, friend."

Li'bet watched a muddle of emotions pass over Shef'hred's features, and for a moment his whole body tensed, as though he were preparing to run, but instead he only briefly clenched his fist and eventually forced out a few words.

"You know," he said, "you don't have to... really. It's good that you're finding a way to mitigate the damage... but it's not... just don't... thank me."

Shef'hred was torn, Li'bet could see that clearly enough. The good man within him ached with guilt to see the harm he'd done, and the old raider leader in him was furious at him for feeling that guilt. Li'bet reached out, laying a tentative hand on his arm to calm him.

"And I thank you for your kind words, Kubia," Li'bet interceded for him. "Shef'hred, as you can see, is not much used to kindness, but I hope that in time, he will become more so." Shef'hred's gaze shifted from Kubia to Li'bet then, his expression a mixture of gratitude and despair.

"I understand," Kubia said. "I remember it was much the same when the Stargazer first came to live with us." Kubia inclined his head toward Rodne, who glowered appropriately on cue. "So I will wish you all fair day, and look forward to our next meeting." The unlucky fisherman hobbled off then, leaving the five breakfasters to return to their meal. The lull in the conversation gave everyone the opportunity to lay into their respective breads, now that they were cool enough to eat, and so they did, enjoying the good food and brief peace... which was shattered abruptly when someone stumbled over Shef'hred, spilling a large quantity of hot tea over his shoulder and back.

"Ow!" Shef'hred exclaimed as owner of the tea, Kvena'ah, naturally, gave his own shout of dismay.

"Hey! Why the hell is he sitting here right in the middle of where everyone walks?" Kvena'ah snapped, not even doing Shef'hred the courtesy of addressing him directly.

"He is doing no such thing," Li'bet hissed, "and you know it. Do not imagine that I am not able to see your behavior for what it is, Kvena'ah, and I will not tolerate such again." She would have carried on, but now it was Shef'hred's hand on her shoulder that gave her pause.

"Let it go," he said quietly. Then more loudly, "He's just a little pain-in-the-ass, without the balls to do any real harm."

There was a moment of tense silence, and then Kvena'ah stomped off, and Li'bet released the breath she'd been holding. "That was well done," she said. "And you were right, of course."

"Of course he was," said Trinka, who, it appeared, had seen the whole thing as she approached. "And Kvena'ah wonders why he gets the burnt bread so often. Forgive my interruption, Headwoman... and worthy Seer," she continued with a nod to Rodne, "but I must beg a measure of your time this morning, Li'bet, -after you and your friends have breakfasted, of course- to discuss my compensation for the workers I am feeding while the dock is rebuilt."

"Of course," Li'bet said. "I think we're almost done here."

"No almost about it," Shef'hred said, standing as he spotted Hallen moving towards them. "Headwoman Li'bet, R'dek... 'Seer'," Shef'hred's grin as he gave this last salutation told Li'bet clearly enough that he'd said it to rile Rodne, but he'd almost certainly scored big points with Trinka as well, which was all to the good. "Fair day to you all."

They all went their separate ways after that, R'dek to find Sitakhus and Yinte and another big bag of apples and beets for the horses, Rodne eventually to join Shef'hred and the others working on the dock, and Li'bet to sit and drink tea with Trinka while she negotiated an equitable arrangement for her and her bakers. Once this was concluded, Li'bet had the remainder of the day to work on her weavings, one of which was to go to Trinka in exchange for her own supply of baked goods over the next few moons.

Since the rain had passed and the clouds looked to be scattering as the day progressed, Li'bet spent most of her day working on the large, outdoor loom, knowing that the remaining days before she would have to take it down for the winter were becoming few. She worked without pausing for a midday meal, breaking off bits of her fruit bread to eat while she worked instead. She did pause late in the afternoon to start a pot of soup, placing in it a couple of duck necks, some beets and greens, and a handful of wild rice. She let it simmer on the fire in her hut while she returned to her weaving, well on her way to completing more than six hand-spans of finished material, which had been her goal for the day.

Li'bet's hut was not too far from the lake shore, so that throughout the day she heard women gossiping as they did their washing, their children playing in the nearby shallow waters, and the occasional shouts and calls of the men working on the dock. When she heard the men calling farewell and day's work done she knew it was time for her to put her basket of yarns and shuttles away and check on her soup.

The day had grown increasingly cool as the afternoon wore on, so that by the time the sun was throwing long shadows throughout the village, painting everything with a gently golden light, Li'bet's fingers had grown cold and a little stiff. Once again she was reminded of the turning season and the coming of winter, and with this thought in mind, pulled out her favorite wool shawl as she prepared to go out again.

One meal in the company of the rest of the village in a day was probably enough for Shef'hred, for now, so Li'bet planned to bring him the soup she'd made and stop on the way at the bakers' for a fresh loaf of bread. She set the soup pot in one large basket, then placed bowls and spoons in another, leaving room for the bread. She paused before she left, however, adjusting her shawl and fingering the row of shell beads she'd stitched into one end. They matched a necklace Ca'dell had given her long ago, made of similar shell beads and a few of blue glass, and though it was quite beautiful, she seldom wore it.

She drew out her small basket of ornaments now, lifting the necklace from among the objects there and feeling the smooth, cool glass beads. She knew why she no longer wore it. She no longer had a man to please, and had sought no other in all the long years since Ca'dell had died... but maybe that might be changed now. She lifted the necklace and placed it over her head, then plucked a bright copper hair ornament from the basket as well, using it to gather her hair neatly at the back of her neck.

Standing to adjust her garb and ornaments, Li'bet remembered how she had thought herself beautiful once, and how much it had mattered to her. For the first time in many summers, Li'bet realized, it mattered again... but would it matter to Shef'hred? There was always a chance that she would just look like an old fool... but she'd convinced Shef'hred to take a great risk in staying here. It was only fair that she take one herself.

The girl minding the bakers' table blinked in surprise and then tried to hide it as Li'bet drew near, but she could see old Trink'a eyes sparkling from where she stood at another table, kneading tomorrow's bread. The raider's appealing qualities were not lost on her, and she found no fault in Li'bet's responding to that appeal. Li'bet only hoped more of the villagers would be so understanding.

Shef'hred was not alone when Li'bet came in sight of his camp, for it seemed R'dek had finished his day's work too, and as she drew closer she saw that Shef'hred was holding one of the riding seats -which, she reminded herself, were called 'saddles'- that R'dek had been removing from the horses. He seemed happy to have it, as well, for he was grinning widely -looking happier than Li'beth thought she'd ever seen him- and R'dek looked extremely pleased with himself too.

"Of course he was the last," R'dek was saying. "But that worked quite well, for we had learned all the tricks from the other horses by then and he had none left for us. We did have to send Yinte back to get another sack of beets, however. I suppose it may have raised his esteem with the rest of the heard, that he got more beets and apples from us than any of the others."

Shef'hred's laugh was delightful to see, as was the pride he clearly took in Jumper's exploits. "He's definitely a champion mooch," Shef'hred said, "and maybe that does count for something with the rest of the heard. Still, I can't believe he let you take his gear off properly, without cutting it off. He even used to give other riders in our band a hard time."

R'dek shrugged, but looked profoundly pleased with himself. "We distracted him with food... and Sitakhus' pipe playing. He could not take his eyes off the man when he played."

"He'd probably never heard the like before," Li'bet remarked as she approached. "And Sitakhus is quite a talented musician. Jumper probably just knows good music when he hears it."

"Fair evening to you, Li'bet," R'dek called as he saw her. "I trust your day was as successful as ours?"

"Li'bet," Shef'hred spoke up a moment later. "Ah... fair day to you, too. You're looking... nice... this evening."

"Thank you," Li'bet beamed. "And it was indeed a successful day, R'dek. Though for me that means six and a half hand-spans of a new rug, and for the two you it would seem to mean something a bit more heroic."

"It is not so much heroism that was required from me as patience," R'dek said, "and a great number of beets and apples. And Shef'hred is right, Li'bet, you are looking quite lovely this evening."

"The word 'laborious' comes to mind long before 'heroic', with regards to my successes today," Shef'hred remarked in turn. "But we did get a lot done."

"So I heard," Li'bet said, setting her baskets down on the grass mat that someone had evidently contributed to Shef'hred's camp. "The word from the ladies at the bakers is that you've got it nearly half finished."

"That might be just a bit of an exaggeration," Shef'hred said with a roll of his eyes, watching Li'bet unload the food from her baskets. She gave him a smirk to let him know that she was quite familiar with lack of accuracy in the bakers' gossip. "We did a good day's work, though. Say, that smells pretty good."

"It does indeed," R'dek concurred, "and reminds me that my own dinner... and Rodne, awaits. I think I will leave you to enjoy your meal and make all haste to my own."

Li'bet gestured Shef'hred to sit as R'dek took his leave, and he did, looking appreciatively over the food, and over Li'bet herself. "This is, um, all pretty nice," he said finally.

"I'm glad you think so," Li'bet said, serving the soup. "I just thought... things have been going well, and I wanted you to know that I appreciate it. Others appreciate it too, I hope you know."

"I do," Shef'hred said, blowing on his soup, "But I also know that not everyone feels so appreciative."

Li'bet nodded, knowing this to be true as well. "Did anyone give you any trouble today?" she asked after they had both eaten a little.

"Not really," Shef'hred said, "though I still got a few black looks. I'm not sure that means that there's no more trouble coming. More likely they're just waiting for an opportune moment."

"I'm afraid you're probably right," Li'bet said, tearing off a piece of her bread. "So we should try to make sure that you're never alone for long. No one who wishes you harm at this point would dare to act against you in public."

"Yeah, R'dek already gave me that advice," Shef'hred said, slurping at his soup a bit. "And I plan on following it. You make this soup, too?"

Li'bet recognized a request for a change of topic when she saw it, and really there was no more to be said on the subject. Their conversation turned to lighter topics as they ate, and Li'bet found herself enjoying Shef'hred's company immensely. More delightful still, he seemed to be enjoying himself as well, and she saw how his face grew so much more expressive when he relaxed. His smile was utterly disarming, and his eyes, in the light of the setting sun, seemed to shift between the colors of emerald and amber. Li'bet found herself fascinated by them.

The sun was just dipping behind the mountains to the west that Teleya appeared and Li'bet realized that no one had come to guard Shef'hred this evening.

"Li'bet, Shef'hred," she greeted them. "I bring word from Hallen and the elders that, seeing as he and I have vouched for his behavior, they are pleased to allow Shef'hred to go unwatched at night from now on. That is, as long as you agree to this as well, Headwoman?"

"Of course," Li'bet said. "And thank you for arranging this."

"There is no need to thank me," Teleya said with a smile, "as I will be quite pleased to sleep in the shelter of our tent tonight."

"I'll bet," Shef'hred commented. "But thanks for the vouch anyhow. I... take that kind of thing seriously."

"As do I, friend," Teleya answered, and then bid them both farewell once more. A brisk, chill breeze lifted from the lake at her departure, and Li'bet caught Shef'hred shivering slightly.

"That settles it," she said frowning. "We mustn't leave you alone for the night, and we can't have you freezing out here either. You'll be spending the night in my hut."

"Oh... hey, um, nice as the offer is..." Shef'hred stammered.

"On the floor," Li'bet clarified. "And no one is going to say anything because who I invite to spend the night in my hut is my business, and besides, if we did _anything_ , at least a dozen prying ears would be sure to hear it, and they're not going to hear a thing."

"Right," Shef'hred said, relaxing. "Maybe some snoring."

"Maybe a lot of snoring," Li'bet admitted, and they both laughed.

They finished eating in a light mood, then, and Shef'hred helped Li'bet carry the dishes and his bedding to her hut when they were done. It was clearly going to be a chilly night, and a few Lakesiders were out, sealing summer windows and adding extra hides to their door flaps as Li'bet and Shef'hred walked through the village. They both greeted those they passed on their way, Li'bet wanting Shef'hred to know that she wasn't hiding who would be sharing her hut that night. She was pleased to see not one raised eyebrow or reproachful look.

The cook fire had kept her hut warm and Shef'hred let out a relieved sigh as soon as he was inside. Li'bet knew then that her decision had been the right one. Shef'hred would have been miserable in his scant shelter tonight, and vulnerable as well. His look was only of gratitude as he made up a rough bed by her fire, and Li'bet felt even warmer than usual as she settled under the furs on her own bed, knowing he was there, warm and safe.

They both fell asleep quickly enough, and slept the night through without interruption... until just before dawn when R'dek came pounding on her door frame, desperate with worry, to tell her that Rodne was missing.

****


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search for a lost stargazer.

"He did not come home last night," R'dek said to the sleepily blinking headwoman, and the raider, who R'dek had not expected to find in Li'bet's hut, though he cared about that not at all at the moment.

"The night was clear, so he went out stargazing," R'dek explained, "as he often does. But he is _always_ back before dawn. Always!"

“I believe you, R’dek,” Li’bet said patiently, possibly trying to calm R’dek by example. It wasn’t going to work. “Do you know where he went?”

“No… no,” R’dek shook his head, wringing his hands in distress. “He said nothing… only… it was his customary place, he said. I… I think.”

“Then we know where he went,” Li’bet said, her voice firm and reassuring, and R’dek was reassured to hear it.

“Where…?” he began, but Li’bet laid a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“I want you to _stay here_ , with Shef’hred,” she said in a voice that brooked no debate. “I’m going to round up people to search and I’m going to have them meet here to get organized. Understood?”

R’dek nodded, frustrated and miserable, but knowing that it was probably better to follow her instructions. Li’bet nodded her approval, then went to get a second wrap and headed out into the morning mist. Shef’hred had to take him by the arm then and pull him into Li’bet’s hut, as R’dek had only thought to wait out in the cold till the searchers arrived.

“Come on, it’s freezing out here,” Shef’hred said as he guided R’dek inside and closed the door flap after him. “Have a seat and I’ll build up the fire.”

“I can’t,” R’dek said, finding himself pacing the confines of the Headwoman’s richly appointed dwelling. R’dek had never been here before, and now had only the scantest attention for the many examples ofLi’bet’s work that adorned the walls and floors. His terrible worries took up all of his thoughts. “What if some beast has taken him?” R’dek fretted. “Wolves or wildcats? What if he has fallen and injured himself, and been lying and bleeding to death somewhere all night...?"

"R'dek," Shef'hred took him by both shoulders to halt his pacing. "Take a deep breath. Now. He was not attacked by wolves. Wolves don't like to come this close to a village, and neither do wildcats. He might be injured, but Li'bet's gonna round up some folks to find him and bring him back, and Caresn will fix him all up..."

"You don't know that!" R'dek snapped, pulling away abruptly. "He could... Gods, he could be dead already... all alone somewhere..." Luckily Caresn, Marakm and Ml'lar appeared just then, before R'dek could completely fall apart.

"Lad, lad," Caresn called softly, the minute he entered and saw R'dek. He laid a warm and heavy arm over R'dek's shoulders and guided him, a bit forcefully, to sit on the edge of Li'bet's bed. "Ye mustn't let yourself forget what a clever fellow our Rodne is. Whatever mischief he's come to, he'd find a way to stay alive till we can find him. He wouldn't leave you like this, lad; ye know he wouldn't."

R'dek nodded, trying to cling to the sense of Caresn's words, trying to hold back the crippling, helpless panic he felt. "The moment I woke I knew something was wrong," he said, fighting tears. "Terribly, terribly wrong. When I saw it was nearly light already, and that he wasn't there..."

"I know, love, I know," Carson rubbed his hand soothingly over R'dek's back. "And I know you want to be doing something. We'll be up and moving in just a little while, I promise, and if you have a bit to eat while you wait, it'll do you a power of good."

Caresn unwrapped a piece of bread that he'd drawn from his shoulder pouch and offered it as he spoke. R'dek took it because he knew that Caresn was right and, more importantly, that he was going to make R'dek eat it one way or another, anyhow. He'd just finished it when Li'bet reappeared, Hallen and Yinte in tow.

"Teleya and R'non are waiting outside, along with Dirneer and Kadam and a few others," she said, "and Shef'hred, you need to go with Hallen."

R'dek all but leaped to his feet, eager to be taking some action at last, and he saw Hallen beckoning Shef'hred to him as they all made their way to the door.

"It's best that you have nothing to do with this search, friend," he heard Hallen saying. "So you and I will go and get some breakfast and then get back to work on that fishing dock."

"Why...?" R'dek turned to Li'bet to ask as Hallen and Shef'hred departed toward the bakery. "Why is it best that Shef'hred not join the search?"

"Because he's an outsider," Li'bet answered him, a touch of bitterness in her voice, "and a lot of people are going to immediately assume that he's somehow responsible."

R'dek glanced back over his shoulder to where Shef'hred and Hallen had disappeared into the mist. "Of course," he replied sadly, thinking what a wise woman Li'bet was to have had such foresight. Her plan for searching for Rodne was a clever one too, R'dek reflected as he, along with the dozen or so other searchers gathered there, listened to her instructions.

During the years that he had lived in Lakeside previously, R'dek now learned, Rodney's customary stargazing spot had been on a hillside, north of the village, overlooking the village and the lake. Li'bet sent one party to the west, to search from the boarders of the village up the hill, another party to the east, to search from the lake shore up the hill, and a third party, which included Caresn and R'dek, to go due north up the hill, and also to search the area of the main path, which meandered up the hillside, looping first west, then east.

They moved quickly then, all but jogging to the north entrance of the village before going their separate ways. Every now and then R'dek could hear someone call out Rodne's name, and then there would be silence, as everyone listened, for even the smallest sound that might indicate an answer. Their own party spit into two, with the younger, more energetic members like Kadam, going straight up the hillside, through various brier thickets and other brush that grew there, while the others, which included R'dek and Caresn, wandered up and along the well trodden, dirt path.

As the morning grew later and the search progressed, R'dek's voice, and those around him too, began to grow horse with shouting, and he came to be grateful for the bit of bread that Caresn had pressed on him earlier. He was doubly grateful that someone in their party had thought to bring along a flask of water, and passed it over to him. Making his way gradually up the path and then ranging a dozen strides or so off it in either direction was a fine use for his excess of nervous energy, R'dek considered as he slaked his thirst, but the anxiety he felt growing in him as time passed was not in the least blunted.

This not knowing, it was nearly unbearable, but contemplating the possibility that Rodne might be lost to him... this made R'dek's heart falter. It made him wonder if he could find a way to live after such a loss. It frightened him more than anything he had ever faced. If he thought of it now, it would unman him, bring him to his knees right here on this dirt path... and it was with a profound effort of will that R'dek wrenched his thoughts away.

"You okay, R'dek?" Sitakhus asked as R'dek handed him back his nearly empty water flask. R'dek shook his head.

"No," he said curtly. "But I am not thinking about that right now."

"We'll find him," Sitakhus said, laying a supportive hand on R'dek's shoulder. "And he'll be okay. The Gods will look after him, just like they always have."

"The Gods he doesn't believe it," R'dek muttered with a shake of his head, but Sitakhus just chuckled and trotted back up the hill. R'dek was just reflecting that they were Gods he didn't quite believe in either when he heard a yelp from up the hillside and, glancing up, saw that Sitakhus had nearly collided with Yinte coming around a large thicket. The youth was breathing hard, red faced and scratched all over, as though he had been running pell-mell, straight down the hill, but when he got himself disentangled from Sitakhus and saw R'dek, he raised his arms excitedly.

"We found him!" he cried. "Kadam did anyhow, and she's with him and he's alive but he's hurt. They're near the top. I'll show you where!"

R'dek felt his heart leap, and his knees nearly gave way again but then Caresn came up behind him, grabbing his arm to steady him. "Easy does it, now," he said. "We'll head up there straight away, but we'll save no time by making a short cut off the path. Yinte lad, is he too far off the path?"

"Hardly," Yinte replied, catching his breath. "But he was way hidden. Kadam's a keen tracker, don't you think?"

"That she is, lad," Caresn said with a grin, gesturing at Yinte to lead the way.

"See, R'dek?" Sitakhus called with a smile. "I told you he had the Gods' favor. I'll see to it that the other searchers are told," he said as he departed, "and Li'bet."

Now, as he made his way hastily up the path, R'dek found himself washed with alternating waves of relief and anxiety. Rodne was alive, but how badly was he hurt? Would he fully recover? What had happened? R'dek knew he would have the answer to many of these questions shortly, but at the moment they would not cease tormenting him. He could not stop himself from breaking into a full-on run when he finally saw Kadam, standing and waving from beside a small tree, surrounded by large, dense bushes. Rodne had indeed been well hidden.

"He kinda mumbled a little when I first got here and called his name," Kadam said as R'dek arrived, "but I don't think he's really awake. I didn't want to move him or anything till Caresn saw him."

"Thank you," R'dek murmured, dropping to his knees at Rodne's side. "Thank you so much, Kadam." His lover was curled on his side on the ground, arms drawn close, protectively, as though he'd been fending off blows, but R'dek also saw a tell-tale smear of white foam at Rodne's lips, and felt his heart falter. Rodne'd had one of his fits... but he always had those in the Spring. R'dek had never known him to have them at any other time of the year.

R'dek straightened to look over his shoulder as he heard Caresn arrive. "It... it looks like he's had one of his fits, Caresn," he said, "but I can't understand why he would have...?"

"Let me see, lad," Caresn said as R'dek moved aside to give him room and the healer knelt beside him. R'dek reached down to gently take Rodne's hand, but then saw that his left seemed badly swollen, and when he touched it Rodne moaned softly.

"Bloody hell," Caresn muttered to himself, examining it carefully. "That's like to be broken... and I doubt he got that in his fit."

"Yeah," Kadam remarked, using her knife to cut away some of the brush around them so that Caresn had room to work. "I was gonna say that it looked like someone beat the crap out of him."

"It could be that the one brought about the other," Caresn said as Radek brushed the hair away from Rodne's eyes and saw that one had been blackened, as though by a fist. Someone _had_ done this, R'dek realized, a red haze of fury rising in him suddenly. Someone had beaten his lover so badly it had brought on a fit, and R'dek felt the black thirst for vengeance creep into his heart again. He felt torn then, one half of him knowing it for the poison that it was, the other craving it like a thirsting man craves water... and then Rodne moaned once more, his eyes fluttering open slightly, and all that was tossed aside, R’dek’s heart so filled with love and sorrow that there was room for nothing else.

R'dek watched Rodne's focus drift from him to Caresn, and only then was there some light of recognition in his eyes. "C-caresn?" Rodne mumbled weakly.

"Aye love, I've got you," the healer said. "You're safe now. Can ye tell us what happened?"

"I... I'm not sure..." Rodne murmured, brows furrowed with effort. "How long... K’harien! Is she all right? Have I left her alone? She shouldn't be alone..."

Caresn's eyes widened and R'dek felt his heart sink, suddenly numb with fear. If Rodne didn't remember that K’harien was long dead… would he remember R'dek...?

"She's fine, lad," Caresn soothed. "Li'bet's with her for now, so you needn't worry. Can you tell me what all hurts?"

"My... my hand..." Rodne murmured. "And... my side... but I feel... did I have one of my fits?"

"Aye, we think you did," Caresn answered him, gently lifting Rodne's tunic to examine his torso. R'dek could see dark bruising there too, and clenched his fists in helpless rage.

"Then... how did I hurt my hand?" Rodne asked weakly. R'dek could hear the fear and confusion in his voice, and longed to comfort him, but was not sure how badly he was hurt, nor if Rodne would recognize him.

"We're not sure, lad," Caresn answered him, eyes closed as he ran a hand carefully over the bruises on Rodne's side. "I'm thinking your ribs are bruised and maybe one or two are cracked, but they're not broken. Do you think you could sit with a little help?"

"Okay..." Rodne said, holding out his good hand for Caresn to help him. Since he was close, R'dek reached down to help as well, placing an arm around Rodne's shoulders to support him as he sat up. Rodne finally noticed him then, blinking as he gazed at R'dek but clearly not recognizing him. R'dek felt his heart grow cold with fear.

"Do... do I know you?" Rodne asked. R'dek tried to answer, but found the words frozen in his throat.

"Aye, he's a good friend," Caresn answered for him. "But you needn't worry about that now. It'll all come back to you soon enough." R'dek did not miss the sidelong glance Caresn sent in his direction, letting him know that his words were meant for both of them, but neither of them seemed to take much comfort in it.

"There's... there's something... something's not right," Rodne said looking around, fear and confusion in his gaze. "It's not Spring, is it? Why did I have a fit if it's not springtime?"

"We don't know, lad," Caresn said honestly enough. "But right now we need to get back down to the village so we can get you in out of the cold. Do ye think you can stand, or do we need to find someone who can carry you?"

"I... um think, maybe, I could stand," Rodne ventured, "with some help?"

"Aye, we've no shortage of that," Caresn said, and only now did R'dek realize that a number of the searchers had gathered, standing a little way back from the thicket where they'd found Rodne. Caresn and R'dek were all that was needed, however, and between the two of them they gently eased Rodne to his feet. He moaned a bit as he put his weight on his left knee -evidently it had been twisted or bruised in the struggle- but managed to hold himself upright eventually, mostly supporting his own weight. 

"Alright people," Kadam announced. "I think we've got everything covered here, and I imagine you've all got other stuff to do...?"

They did, in fact, and the handful of spectators began to wander off in various directions as R'dek, Rodne and Caresn began to walk, slowly and carefully, down the path back to the village. They met Li'bet coming up as they were about three quarters of the way down.

"Rodne, thank the Gods we found you," she cried as she drew near. "What happened?"

"Li'bet..." Rodne frowned, looking concerned. "Caresn said you were with K'harien... You didn't leave her alone did you? She shouldn't be alone..."

Li'bet's eyes went wide and she glanced from Rodne to Caresn, some unspoken communication passing between them. "Hallen's with her, Rodne," she said softly. "She's not alone."

"But she hates Hallen," Rodne objected, continuing to limp slowly down the path between R'dek and Caresn.

"She hates me too, Rodne," Li'bet reminded him gently, "but right now she's mostly just worried about you, along with the rest of us. I'll make sure K'harien's being taken care of, you just take care of yourself for now."

Rodne seemed to accept that, nodding wordlessly as he used most of his tattered concentration to keep himself moving forward and on his feet. His gaze grew more troubled and disturbed as they reached the village proper, however, and R'dek knew he was seeing things, like the cattle barricades and the partially burned huts, that didn't belong with the memories he was living with now. He said nothing about it, however, allowing Caresn and R'dek to guide him to Caresn's hut.

The interior of Caresn's hut seem to disturb him even more, but of course, R'dek realized, it had been K'harien's at one time, and there was no sign of her there now, and there was Loren as well, who Rodne surely must think didn't belong. R'dek dreaded that someone would have to tell Rodne that K'harien was dead, but Rodne did not ask about her. Instead, R'dek could see, his brilliant mind was trying to fit all the pieces together, and possibly even beginning to suspect the truth.

"Caresn...?" Rodne asked, voice small and a little frightened. "What... what's going on...?"

"Sshh, it's all right now, lad," Caresn soothed, guiding him to lie down on the spare pallet. "We'll have you set to rights in just a little while, and it'll all be sorted then. No need to worry."

Rodne's guileless blue eyes met Caresn's directly and he nodded slowly. Even R'dek was amazed at the depth of trust he saw there, for he knew, better than anyone, how rare it was for Rodne to give his trust, and why. Then Caresn was lifting Rodne's tunic away and R'dek got a good look, at last, at the extent of the scrapes and bruises Rodne's assailant had left on his body. Loren sucked in a shocked breath.

"Gods above," he swore. "Who did this?"

"Someone I would like to hurt very much," R'dek growled, beginning to furiously pace the cluttered confines of Caresn's hut. "If only we knew who it was."

"Damn," said Loren, glancing between Caresn and R'dek. Caresn was kneeling beside Rodne, hands moving slowly over the injured man's body, assessing and determining the most serious injuries, and every small, pained sound that Rodne made fueled R'dek's growing rage further.

"Will you need me to drum, Caresn?" Loren asked.

"Nae, thank you, love," the healer said, "but if you could build up the fire a wee bit and throw on a little incense, I'd be grateful."

"You bet," Loren replied, standing slowly, with the aid of a crutch, and going over to the fire. R'dek almost tripped over him in his pacing and Caresn glanced over his shoulder to exchange another look with Loren. 

"R'dek, my friend," the hunter said, laying a hand on R'dek's shoulder to forestall any further pacing. "You can keep on being mad outside, or you can calm the hell down and stay here, where Rodne needs you."

R'dek struggled for a moment, both internally and, briefly, against Loren's heavy grip. "How can he need me," R'dek hissed, despair and fury mixed in equal parts, "if he does not know me?"

"Damn," Loren said again, his words heartfelt. "Okay, that sucks, but you know Caresn'll set him straight, right? But you've got to give the man a little peace and quiet to work."

R'dek's brittle fury broke under the weight of Loren's steady gaze and heavy hand. He let the hunter guide him to sit on the edge of the bed and sat silently while Loren attended to the fire and Caresn held Rodne's broken hand between his two, a look of intense concentration on his face. Now the room filled with the pungent smoke from the sweetwood chips and tree berries and Caresn began to sway slightly where he knelt. After only a few moments, however, the healer drew a long breath and laid Rodne's hand carefully down over his heart.

"That's not near so bad as it might have been, Rodne," he said. "A man's got a lot of bones in his hand, and it was only one of yours that was actually broken. I've set it straight and now I'm going to splint it, so you must try your best not to move."

Caresn asked Loren to bring him his baskets of splints and bindings, and then to make up a pot of river-tree bark tea. R'dek sat in silence throughout, letting his head rest in his hands. He thought of the absolute trust he'd seen in Rodney's eyes when Caresn had told him that he was going to be alright. Why didn't he feel that assurity? Caresn was a good man; he'd saved R'dek's life not two moons past. Why, then, couldn't R'dek feel that strength of belief that would lift the cloud of despair that lay over him now?

Radek knew he had not yet managed to shake all of the terror that had gripped him when he had woken to find Rodne missing early this morning, and his heart remained half enshrouded in the ice that had formed there when Rodne had gazed upon him without a trace of recognition. When he added to that the smoldering fury that had first blazed in him upon discovering the nature of Rodne's injuries, it was no wonder R'dek was beyond trusting anyone. Thankfully, Caresn's calm, and Loren's steadfast presence kept utter despair at bay, giving R'dek the strength he needed to wait, silently, for Rodne to return to him. Loren's gentle tap on his shoulder, when it came, startled him.

 

***


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodne becomes found - Shef'hred becomes lost.

"They need you," he said quietly, and R'dek stood and shook himself, crossing to kneel at the healer's side.

"In a little while, I'm going to ask you to call him," Caresn explained. "Not with your voice, but with your heart. But before you can do that..." R'dek knew what Caresn was going to tell him, and felt a wave of shame and fear as the healer laid his hand over R'dek's heart. "The anger that's here, you've got to leave it behind, lad. It'll poison the working, and steal the strength you'll need to reach him."

"I know," R'dek said, swallowing hard. "I know I must... but it is so hard... when I see..." R'dek shut his eyes against the sight of the marks of another man's fists on his lover's body.

"The best way to drive such things from your heart is to fill it with something better, and stronger," Caresn said, his voice low, lulling him to calm. "It's your love for him that you need to remember now, and I know you've more than enough if you just think on it, lad."

R'dek nodded, knowing Caresn was right, feeling it. Leaving his eyes closed, R'dek recalled the first Midwinters gift Rodne had given him -of a piece of bark inscribed with the symbols for his birth stars- and how the love he felt for the stargazer had filled his heart then. He remembered how Rodne's face would relax into such gentle affection when Spitt would come to curl at his side and purr while he worked, and the desperate courage he'd felt from his lover as he'd lifted R'dek, to carry him down the mountain to Lakeside. R'dek felt the anger give way then, for there was no room left in his heart for it, so full was it with his love for the man who lay before him, lost within himself.

"Rodne..." he little more than whispered, eyes still closed. Caresn nodded then, taking R'dek's hand and placing Rodne's good one in it, and R'dek grasped the hand in his firmly, interlacing their fingers. R'dek remembered those hands on him, only a few nights ago, beneath the wingseed tree, how they gave him pleasure so knowingly, and so gently. Vaguely, he heard Caresn chanting in a low voice, and thought with all his heart, come back, lover; come back to me, please, please...

The fingers interlaced with his twitched suddenly and Caresn fell silent, then R'dek heard Rodne draw a breath, and then speak, his voice rough and a little unsteady.

"R'dek...?" R'dek's eyes flew open, and Rodne's blue eyes were staring back, full of affection and concern, and they knew him! Rodne knew him... and then R'dek burst into tears.

"Rodne... oh Gods, Rodne..." R'dek sobbed, clutching Rodne's good right hand in both of his. Caresn laid a hand over his shoulders, making soft soothing sounds.

"Rodne, lad, can ye tell me what you remember last?" Caresn asked Rodne after a moment.

Rodne's gazed flicked from R'dek to Caresn, his brows furrowed in concentration. "I... I think I was... coming back from stargazing?" He frowned, his look becoming more determined. "Yes, I'm sure of it, because I'd made some really interesting... my slate! Where's my slate?"

R'dek drew in a long sniffle, trying to get his voice under control. "I, um... I think Yinte found... some pieces? I am sorry, Rodne."

"Aw, dammit," Rodne sighed. "And I feel like crap too. What the hell happened?"

"Then you don't remember?" Caresn asked.

"No!" Rodne shook his head impatiently, then winced. "I was walking down the path, and... there was someone..." Rodne's brows furrowed again, and then he went pale. "No..." he whispered. "It couldn't have been him... He... he must be dead by now..."

Suddenly, R'dek realized who it was that had intruded on Rodne's scrambled memories and he leaned forward to take Rodne's face between his hands. "It wasn't, Rodne," he reassured him, firmly if a little tearfully. "It wasn't him. You had one of your fits and it brought the memory back. That's all it was, Rodne. That's all."

Rodne nodded slowly, calming and R'dek settled back, letting Caresn close again to lay a hand over Rodne's heart. "He's got the right of it lad," Caresn confirmed. "Give yourself some time and your proper memories will return, but for now, you need to rest."

Rodne nodded, his face relaxing so that all his pain and fatigue, as well as his bruises were clearly revealed. R'dek felt a fresh bout of tears come at the sight and he sniffled. Rodne tugged at the hand he still held, urging R'dek closer. "R'dek needs to rest too, doesn't he, Caresn?" he asked the healer.

"Aye, that he does," Caresn agreed with a smile. "As do I. Loren, you don't mind keeping watch for a bit?"

"Not at all," the hunter replied. "I was just going to make up some tea and work here training my new bow anyway."

"That's splendid," Caresn replied. "But could you nip outside and let Li'bet know how things are before you settle in? I was going to go speak to her myself, but..."

"No problem," Loren said, pushing himself to his feet as he guided Caresn to his bed with a gentle kiss. "I'll take care of it."

R'dek, for his part, was more than happy to crawl under the furs at Rodne's side, carefully closing his lover in his arms so as not to hurt hiim. When he finally had himself settled however, his face pressed into Rodne's shoulder, R'dek found that his tears -of relief, fear, gratitude and sorrow- would not stop. He did not try to hold them in, though he knew it would worry Rodne. R'dek could not recall a more wretched morning in all his adult life, and the welter of feelings that roiled within him would not be restrained.

"Hey," Rodne said softly, turning to face his distraught lover. "It's okay now. I'm okay..."

"You did not... you did not come home this morning," R'dek sobbed, meaning to explain his state of mind to Rodne, though he was not sure how clear he was being. "You... you were not here when I woke... and I have never... never been so terrified..."

"Sshh... it's okay now R'dek," Rodne soothed, running the fingers of his good hand through R'dek's hair. "You found me and I'm okay... well, mostly okay..."

"We... we searched all morning," R'dek continued, calming a little at Rodne's touch. "But when we found you... at first... y-you didn't know me..."

Rodne's hand stilled for a moment. "K'harian..." he murmured. "I was asking about K'harian, wasn't I?" R'dek nodded.

"Damn..." Rodne sighed. "My brains must have been really scrambled. No wonder I saw... you know..."

"You were... you were lost," R'dek said quietly, his hand gripping Rodne's good one tightly. "But Caresn found you. Caresn found you and brought you back and you will be fine now."

"R'dek," Rodne's voice was soft, and yet there was a hint of chiding in it. "It wasn't Caresn who found me... It was you. He just showed you how to look."

R'dek looked up, meeting Rodne's penetrating, blue eyes with his own, and was immediately reminded of his desperate, wordless plea from a few moments ago. He had prayed for Rodne to hear him, and now he wondered if he had indeed. "Oh," he said, a little dumbstruck, and then, "I promise never to climb any dangerously tall trees again."

"No you don't," said Rodne, his smile pained, but full of such affection R'dek could almost have wept, again. "But I love you anyway."

In the silence that followed, Rodne and R'dek both could hear Caresn snoring softly across the hut, and both were immediately inspired to follow his example. Neither of them even heard Loren's return a few moments later.

***

 

Word came quickly to the crew rebuilding the dock, down at the lake shore, that Rodne had been found, and a little while after that, Li'bet came and told them that Rodne had been injured, but that he would most likely recover fully and quickly. Shef'hred did not fail to notice how Li'bet didn't go into any details of _how_ Rodne had been injured, and he was fairly certain that he wasn't the only one. From the sidelong glances the men working along side him threw at each other, and the muttered speculations he heard during the midday meal break, Shef'hred figured that he wasn't the only one to put the absence of facts together to reach the conclusion that Rodne's mishap had not likely been an accident.

Shef'hred had his own suspicions, of course, and he had a good idea that those suspicions were shared by several others, but he kept his opinions to himself. He knew why Hallen had kept him from joining the search, and why, likewise, anything he said now would only be taken the wrong way. Instead, he bent his back willfully to the sorts of labors he'd once despised, and took great care to see that neither he nor anyone else working with him came to any danger.

There was a moment of tension when Shef'hred announced that he was going to step away for a moment to relieve himself, but neither his friends nor his enemies figured it would be politic to offer to accompany him. Hallen's steady look and nod, letting him know that he'd come looking for him if he wasn't back shortly, was the only indication he got that someone was watching his back, but he was grateful for it nonetheless. His hopes that he would be able to take care of business and return to work without incident were dashed soon enough, however.

"So that's what she sees in you," said an unwelcome and familiar voice just as Shef'hred was lacing his leggings back up.

"I beg your pardon?" Shef'hred asked, in spite of having heard Gefier's words and understood his implications quite clearly.

"I can't even say I blame her," Gefeir said with utterly false amiability. "She is only a woman, after all, and she's been without a man for quite some time. Probably couldn't help herself."

"Listen pal," Shef'hred snarled over his shoulder, not pleased to have his back to the man, but still fastening himself up. "The only people who've seen my... assets, are my guards and you, and if this is your way of expressing interest, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint."

"If I had any 'interest' I wouldn't be asking," Gefeir growled, his eyes dangerous. "I'm just here to make things simple for you, stranger."

"Could be I like my life complicated," Shef'hred said, turning at last to face the hunter with his arms crossed in a relaxed pose. "Seeing as we're such strangers, you'd want to be careful about making assumptions."

"I'm not asking you what you prefer, either, barbarian," Gefeir replied. "I'm telling you. You're not welcome here. The life that you think, and that she thinks, you can have here, you can't. It's a delusion. What you can do is ride out of here and never come back, and go complicate your life somewhere else."

"I could, I guess," Shef'hred said with a shrug. "But I'm just not finding the motivation." If Gefeir meant to threaten him, Shef'hred thought, he was going to learn quickly that Shef'hred didn't respond well to threats.

"Of course not," Gefeir said with an ugly laugh. "You think you've got the headwoman wrapped around your finger, if it's not your dick she's wrapped around. But she won't be wrapped around anything if she's dead, stranger, and folks around here won't be so willing to overlook her foolish whims if she gets hurt."

Shef'hred felt himself go cold all over. He'd thought Gefeir only a small minded bully, but Shef'hred knew when a man meant to do violence, and he had a good idea that this one had done some already.

"You think I don't know what happened to the stargazer?" Shef'hred hissed in reply. "You think other people haven't figured it out too? I may be a stranger, but the people here, they know you, Gefeir. They'll know who has it in them to beat a defenseless hermit, or a woman, and you're going to wish you were dead long before they let you die, if anything ever happens to her."

"By the Gods, you're arrogant!" Gefeir quipped with a humorless laugh. "You've been among us for, what, a handful of days? And you think you know us so well. Are you willing to gamble her life and well-being on your arrogance, stranger? Are you so sure it's me and not you that will end up longing for death? Why take such risks when there's a sure way? I took you for a murderous bastard, but not a stupid one."

Against his will, almost, Shef'hred found himself looking over his shoulder at where the horses, including his, stood quietly grazing a short distance away. Gefeir was right about one thing, he thought bitterly. Getting the hell out of here right now was a sure thing, for him and for Lakeside. He didn't need Gefeir's words to convince him that his very presence was sowing discord in the village -he'd seen it with his own eyes. Staying would only bring more trouble to a people he'd already harmed enough. Heart full of bitter helplessness, Shef'hred saw a triumphant grin grow on Gefeir's face as the hunter watched him, coming to the very conclusions he'd endorsed.

"Knew you were a crafty fucker," he said smugly. "You know you don't belong here and you never will. Go on then. I won't say a word." He turned on his heel and left then, so sure was he that he'd have his way... and dammit, he wasn't wrong either. It sickened Shef'hred to know that he'd let such a pathetic bully threaten him into leaving, but the man had an undeniable point. He would never be welcomed here, and if he had any feelings for the headwoman he had to know that he wasn't doing her any favors by staying.

Defeat, Shef'hred thought sadly, lifting two fingers to his lips. He had better get used to it. Jumper's head was up the moment his whistle split the air, and the stallion answered, his own cry nearly as piercing as Shef'hred's. At his second whistle Jumper came running, tracking with him as Shef'hred strode the short distance to his 'camp'. He had his saddle in his arms by the time Jumper galloped up, and had the horse saddled and bridled moments later. After a brief hesitation, Shef'hred grabbed the largest fleece from among those that had been left under his shelter and rolled it up to tie to the back of his saddle. He didn't like stealing what Li'bet had so generously let him borrow, but he liked freezing to death even less.

He took one last, long, look around, once he had lifted himself onto Jumper's back. The last time he had looked upon this village from horseback he had been riding at breakneck speed into what he had fully expected would be his death. It had seemed easier, then, to throw his life away but, in the end, just as impossible, as it had proved later. If that was his only path to honor, then it would seem that honor was truly lost to him, and if that was the case, then this petty theft, and the betrayal of his sudden and cowardly departure should not trouble him in the least. With a shout, Shef'hred drove his heels into Jumper's sides and then they were off. Shef'hred even managed to prevent himself from looking back as he rode away.

He guided Jumper toward the east, preferring to ride with the late afternoon sun at his back and with no particular reason to chose any other direction. Urging his mount faster, Shef'hred soon saw the harvested grasslands of Lakeside fall behind them so that they rode now through tall grasses that parted before them like water. Gods he'd missed this -the chill wind on his face, the earth flying by below, the driving rhythm of the creature that bore him, hot and living between his legs. The confusion that had fogged his mind for days seemed to lift, along with the doubts about who he was. _This_ was who and what he was: movement and speed and the heart of a noble creature, as true to him as no man or woman ever had been.

Their shadow gradually lengthened before them as they rode across the wide grasslands. There were hills ahead, some distance away, but Shef'hred knew he would not reach them tonight, even if he rode hard till sunset. There was not really a need for that, however, and Jumper seemed ready to drop back to a slower pace for a bit, so Shef'hred let him. They moved at an easy, loping canter for a little while, then slowed to a walk and Shef'hred began to relax into the quiet of the wide grasslands around them.

Riding hard, the only sounds Shef'hred had been aware of were the thundering of Jumper's hooves, his harsh, rhythmic breaths and creak of the saddle beneath him. Now he could hear the rustle of the dry grasses as the wind moved through them, now and then a distant birdsong, and once, the hunting cry of a hawk. The light began to grow amber colored and dim as the sun dropped into a layer of haze, and Shef'hred looked back then, to see the lake, golden with reflected sunlight, and the small smudge of smoke on the distant shore that was all that was to be seen of the village of Lakeside.

There was no denying the pang of regret he felt at the sight, and Shef'hred tore his gaze away angrily. What regrets could he have, save for the false hopes he had briefly entertained? He was getting ready to urge Jumper to pick up his speed again when he heard the sound, carrying far across the quiet plains. Jumper heard it too, of course, and swung his head around to gaze longingly back at the source of the sound. Shef'hred did not know if it was Spark or one of the mares whose voice had been carried on the wind to reach them, though Jumper surely would, and either would rouse the stallion's most basic instincts -to protect and lead his heard. Shef'hred would be taking him away from all that.

Uncertainly, Jumper stumbled to a halt and Shef'hred sat, immobile in the saddle, holding back the impulse to spur Jumper on, unable to make himself turn back. The herd called again, and Jumper swiveled his head to meet Shef'hred's eyes with his own. There was no artifice in him. Jumper knew exactly what he wanted, but he would do as Shef'hred commanded. And there was the bitter irony, Shef'hred reflected, because he himself had no idea what he wanted.

***


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn that Jumper is a wise horse indeed.

'A wise man,' the words came to Shef'hred suddenly, 'knows when his horse may be wiser than he.' His grandfather had told him that, the last autumn before the fever had taken him, Shef'hred recalled now. The old man had spoken those words after Shef'hred had told him of his misadventure in the marsh with Jumper, and of how he'd discovered that there were times that it was best to let Jumper chose the way. Was this, too, one of those times?

Looking over the empty expanses before him, Shef'hred now saw only purposelessness and desolation, where moments before he had seen freedom. Everything he wanted lay behind him, and while some things he dreaded lay there as well, Jumper's imploring gaze seemed to point out the foolishness of leaving one behind just to escape the other. What use was it, after all, to live free of fear if that meant abandoning joy as well?

"You're sure about this, buddy?" he asked uncertainly. Jumper answered him with a snort and a toss of his head.

"Yeah, I figured as much," Shef'hred said with a dry chuckle. Horses never second guess themselves, and he had always envied them for that. He brought Jumper around to face west now, the setting sun low on the horizon and painting the sky amber and pink. The haze and clouds shaded Shef'hred's eyes from the sun's glare as he urged his mount forward, and he knew it would be full dark before he reached Lakeside again. He let Jumper set the pace and the horse did not dally, heading back to his herd and home at a relaxed gallop. Shef'hred wondered who, if anyone, would be waiting for him, and if he wasn't already thinking of Lakeside as something like home.

By the time the sun dipped altogether below the horizon, Lakeside had become visible as a small cluster of twinkling lights, and these were what guided Shef'hred and Jumper through the dark of the yet moonless night. When the lights became close enough to be seen as distinct and separate, Shef'hred steered them towards the closest one, and gradually came to realize that this was the small firepit that lay near his 'camp'. Who, he wondered, had kindled that fire, set so much apart from the rest of the village? When he saw who it was, however, Shef'hred felt very foolish indeed.

It was Headwoman Li'bet, of course, dressed once again in her fine woven shawl and necklace. He could see the glass beads gleaming in the light of the fire. She stood as they approached, everything about her poise and movement regal and dignified. Shef'hred had met clan matriarchs, surrounded by power and wealth, who bore less dignity than the woman standing, waiting before him, and Shef'hred realized, as he swung down from the saddle, the profound betrayal of what he had almost done.

He strode towards her as she stepped around the small watchfire, and then he was in her arms and she in his.

"Sorry," Shef'hred gasped against her shoulder. "Gods I'm sorry. I didn't... He said he'd hurt you, or worse, and I thought... I was stupid... Gods, I was so stupid..." Li'bet said nothing, but her arms, holding him tight, spoke of her forgiveness.

"It was Gefeir, wasn't it?" she asked, surprising Shef'hred, though it should not have. They were her people, after all, and naturally she would know which ones might be capable of such acts. Shef'hred nodded in acknowledgement, drawing back a little to face the headwoman, but not relinquishing his hold on her.

"I'm betting he was the one Rodne ran afoul of too," he said. "He didn't deny it when I accused him and he didn't seem to care. He's a dangerous man, Li'bet, and he wasn't bluffing when he threatened you."

"I know he was the one who attacked Rodne," Li'bet confirmed. "The man insulted him in front of about a third of the village the other night, but until Rodne remembers for himself I thought it better not to make accusations. Gefeir has, unfortunately, always held a great deal of anger inside him, though I do not know why. Recent events have caused that anger to spill out, and that does make him dangerous, as you've said." She sighed, leaning into him, as though for warmth or strength, and Shef'hred felt almost unmanned at the unthinking trust of the gesture.

"You shouldn't be alone, Li'bet," Shef'hred said. "It isn't safe for you, and when he finds out I've come back, Gefeir will be furious. He's not alone either, you know. There are people listening to the crap he's handing out, and they're liable to act on his suggestions too."

"There are people listening," Li'bet agreed, "but I doubt that any of them would do more than join him in his badmouthing of me or others. They do it because it makes them feel important, not because they have any real violence in them. And Shef'hred, you need to take care yourself, too. Gefeir will find far more sympathetic ears when suggesting that something needs to be 'done' about you."

Shef'hred heard the worry in her voice, further proof of how much she cared for him, he thought, with an inner wince. He hugged her close for a moment, then released her so that he could quickly attend to Jumper, waiting patiently by his tent. 

"I guess I'd better just stick close to you, then," he said as he removed the saddle and stowed it under his former shelter. "That way I can look out for myself and you at the same time." He returned to the horse's side to remove his halter and found Li'bet there, gazing intently at him.

"Can I... would he let me touch him?" she asked.

"Sure," Shef'hred replied, slipping Jumper's halter off and patting him firmly on the head. "He'll like you just fine. I think he's a pretty good judge of character, actually. I mean, he let R'dek close long enough to remove his halter and saddle properly -though I hear you talked him out of a bag and a half of beets, ya mooch!" Shef'hred directed this last comment to the horse himself, smacking him playfully on the neck.

Li'bet reached up a little tentatively to stroke the side of Jumper's face, and then his soft nose. "Hello Jumper," she said with a timid smile.

Jumper snorted softly and swung his head around to gaze at her directly. "It was actually Jumper," Shef'hred admitted, feeling it only right to give credit where credit was due, "who, ah, convinced me to turn back. He had his own reasons, I imagine, but, ah... I've learned that there are times when I need to let him call the shots. He's particularly good at letting me know when I'm being really stupid."

"Then thank you, Jumper," Li'bet said, petting the stallion with a bit more confidence. "Thank you for bringing him home to me."

"He's good at that too," Shef'hred said, coming to stand beside Li'bet and reaching up to fondle Jumper's ears. "At bringing me home... even when I don't have the sense to know where my own home is." He turned his gaze to Li'bet then, and found her own gaze on him already.

"Then come home with me, Shef'hred," she said, wrapping an arm around his waist. "And let me make it your home too."

Shef'hred reached across to slap Jumper on the whithers, letting him know he was free to go, but his eyes never left Li'bet's face. He heard the stallion call out joyfully as he galloped off to rejoin his herd and, surprised to feel an answering joy lifting from his own heart, Shef'hred realized that he did know what he wanted, and that he was gazing upon it, upon her, at this very moment.

"You know, I'm really lucky I've got such a smart horse," he said softly, still turning the miracle of happiness over in his heart. Then he turned and kissed her. She responded instantly, as though she'd been waiting -and maybe she had. Her kiss was insistent, demanding, and maybe just a little possessive, and Shef'hred found it easy to give her everything she demanded -found it too easy, and too wonderful, to be possessed.

Her eyes were alight when they drew apart, magnifying and scattering the light of the little watchfire more than should have been possible. "Are you hungry?" was all she asked, however.

"Oh hell yes," Shef'hred laughed, interlacing his fingers with Li'bet's when she took his hand.

"Then come home and have dinner," she said, pulling him after her, into the village. "Come home and stay home."

"Yeah," said Shef'hred, feeling his joy work its way up from his heart into his face. "Yeah, I think I will."

***

They dined on smoked goose and wild rice cooked with herbs and apples, and fell to feeding each other after a spell. Eventually, they both decided they were hungrier for each other, and they left the remains of their dinner behind as she drew him into her bed. Li'bet could not help but smile at how careful he was, almost shy, but eager to comply with her least suggestion -to put his hands on her breasts, to kiss her everywhere, to lay beside her, and then to cover her body with his.

"Li'bet," he breathed, looking down at her with something like wonder.

"Shef'hred," she replied, smiling up at him with delight, slipping her hands under his tunic to spread them over his hard muscled body. He knelt back and caught at both her hands, his look growing suddenly intense.

"My name," he said, voice low, "my... birth name, my soul name... is Jon. Only close family can know it and... and I'm giving it to you."

"Jon..." Li'bet whispered, her heart full of the profundity of this gift. She groped for a moment to find words for what it meant, then gave up and pulled him into a kiss, fierce with the strength of her feeling. His eyes went a bit wide at that, but as before, he followed her lead faithfully, and joyfully. She broke off the kiss to let him take her long tunic off, though when she tried to take the necklace off with it, Shef'hred... Jon stopped her.

"Leave it," he said. "It... it suits you. If I were rich, like one of the great chieftains, I'd cover you in jewels." He bent his head to kiss her breasts as he spoke and Li'bet laughed and then gasped a little at the sensation of his lips against a nipple.

"Jon..." she moaned, reaching up to unlace his tunic, then down to unlace his leggings. It was a little while before either one of them was ready for Jon to stop kissing her breasts, even for the brief moment it would take to actually remove his tunic. When they finally did, Li'bet insisted that his leggings and loincloth come away as well, and once this was accomplished they needed to pull a few furs up around themselves, their two naked bodies snuggled warmly together.

As soon as they were settled, Jon returned, with typical masculine single-mindedness, to kissing and sucking Li'bet's breasts, and she had no complaints about that, especially as she could now feel his hard cock pressing against her thigh. Li'bet gasped and writhed against him, thinking how very long it had been since she'd felt a man's flesh against hers, and how much she'd missed it.

"Gods you're beautiful," Jon moaned against her skin, and Li'bet could feel his hips thrusting against her as well. "Want to taste you..."

"Yes... oh Jon," Li'bet's legs were parting even as she spoke, revealing her sex, already moist with arousal.

He kissed his way down her body, hands caressing her almost worshipfully, and paused when he came to her center, drawing in a long breath to capture her scent. "Beautiful," he murmured again, running the tip of his tongue along the edge of one lip.

Li'bet arched her back and opened wider, moaning at the touch, aching for more and Jon hummed in response, shifting himself around so that he was kneeling between her thighs, still beneath the furs. His fingers, warm and careful, opened her and his tongue caressed an inner lip now, wringing yet more cries from Li'bet. Jon chuckled in delight, and immersed himself in pleasuring her.

He coaxed her first climax from her circling his tongue around her bud and teasing the place just above her entrance, drinking her nectars with evident relish. She arched her back and cried out loudly as the ecstasy took her, considering, in an abstract sort of way, that the neighbors weren't going to have any doubts about what transpired here tonight.

Jon's smile was radiant enough to light her whole hut, she noticed when she could focus again, and she tugged him up for a kiss. She could taste herself in his mouth and felt his manhood, pressing hard against her sex. Jon moaned into her mouth and thrust against her, and she thrust back, desperate to be filled as she had not been in so many summers.

"Jon," she gasped. "Please... I want..." but he knew what she wanted.

"Gods, yes..." Jon moaned, straddling her, positioning his hard flesh at her opening. Li'bet was wet and wanting and ready for him, lifting her hips to meet his. He entered slowly, trembling a little and murmuring words she could not quite make out. He held himself still for a moment once he was fully inside her, letting her adjust, and himself as well. As long as it had been since she had last enjoyed the feel of a man inside her, Li‘bet could not help wondering how long it had been for Jon.

She drew in a long breath, reveling in the sense of fullness, the intimate joining with another soul, but before long she was craving more, and lifted her hips again to move against him, and feel him move inside her. Jon made a broken sound that seemed almost like a cry of pain and thrust once, but held himself back from more. "Li'bet," he gasped, his voice harsh in what might have been a warning or a plea -or perhaps both.

"Yes," Li'bet cried again. "Please..." because she was ready, more than ready, and she let him know, thrusting her hips against him once more.

"Gods..." he groaned, and began slowly thrusting, his smooth hard flesh filling her deep and then withdrawing as he lowered his head to lick and nip at her breasts. "So good... Gods Li'bet, you feel so good..."

Li'bet felt the same, but all she could get out were the gasping moans that came every time Jon thrust into her, occasionally punctuated by a cry of, "Yes, Gods, yes!" She wanted to tell him that he was beautiful and brave and that she loved him, but her words were all fled, and all she could do was thrust and writhe against him, clenching at his cock where it moved, deep inside her.

Jon's breathing had gone ragged now, his thrusting harder and more rapid, and Li'bet matched his tempo, reveling in the force of his lovemaking. More wonderful still was when he reached an unsteady hand down to caress her bud, stroking it gently in rhythm with his thrusts. Li'bet nearly screamed his name aloud then -the secret name he had only just given her- but she stopped herself, finding his other name easily enough, and cried that out instead as she came, and came and came.

Such profound pleasure it was to feel her shuddering body clench around Jon's hard flesh, and what a greater pleasure still it was to see Jon's eyes go wide as his own climax came over him, and to hear him cry her own name in turn. Li'bet felt the hot pulses of his seed inside her as he thrust into her one last time, then his arms gave way and he collapsed to lie on top of her. She didn't mind it, enjoying the closeness and the feel of Jon's thundering heart next to hers. She enjoyed even more the sensation of his lips, a moment later, warm and questing, moving over her throat, her jaw, the finally to her own mouth, where she welcomed them with joyful enthusiasm.

"Are you home now?" she asked, some time later when he had slipped off to her side, laying his arms around her as she curled close, head resting on his shoulder.

"Yeah..." he replied, his lips brushing her cheek as he spoke. "I guess maybe I am."

****


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lakeside prepares for the Day of Balance.

Rodne felt like crap for the next few days, as he usually did after a fit, and added to that was the fact that his broken hand hurt like hell and his cracked ribs made breathing much more awkward, painful and complicated than it ought to have been. Given all of this, he ought to have been a complete asshole to everyone, and he was, mostly, his usual abrasive self with Caresn and Loren, and even Li'bet when she came to visit, but he found himself compelled to be careful with R'dek. His lover's eyes were still haunted, just a little, with a shadow of the terror he'd felt when he'd first missed Rodne, and for Rodne's whole first day of recovery R'dek refused to leave his side. Caresn had nearly had to throw him bodily out of his hut on the second day, and he'd completed his errands in record time to return to Rodne's side as quickly as possible.

Though he had dismissed R'dek's promise to avoid dangerous tree climbing in the future, Rodne understood entirely where that promise had come from, and his heart was both warmed and saddened by it. He recalled too clearly his own panic and dread when he'd thought R'dek's life to be in danger, and now R'dek had had a taste of that terror for himself, and wanted Rodne to know that he'd do what he could to see that Rodne never suffered such again. Rodne would have made an equivalent promise himself, but he knew he couldn't possibly promise never to have another fit, and truthfully, R'dek couldn't really promise never to have another accident again. Life didn't come with such guarantees. They both knew this, as much as they would wish otherwise.

Instead, Rodne reflected, feeling his lover's arm wrapped carefully around his side so as not to aggravate his ribs, they needed to get back to doing the things that gave them joy and purpose, and drew their thoughts away from the inevitable day that one or both of their lives would end. R'dek, he could see, was having a hard time with that just now, but R'dek was also between projects -having just finished his part of making the new longbow. These times generally found R'dek moody and aimless, until a new project came his way, so Rodne knew that would be the answer here.

"Didn't you tell me you were thinking about designing some sort of special boot for Loren a while back?" Rodne inquired, late on the afternoon of his third day of recovery. He'd felt ready to try sitting up today, which he could do if he was very careful about it. Yesterday Yinte had given him all the broken pieces of Rodne's old slate tablet he could find, and this morning Sitakahus had dropped by with a new one -something he'd acquired in a trade, he said, and had never found anyone who wanted to trade for it. R'dek had helped him piece together Rodne's old slate on the floor of Caresn's hut, and the two of them, over the course of the day, had managed to decipher much of the notes and observations Rodne had made on the old slate.

This project concluded, however, R'dek became restless and clingy, which was understandable, but rather aggravating for Rodne, who really just wanted to work on the data he had just reassemble, quietly.

"Mmm..." R'dek replied vaguely to Rodne's question, continuing to stare off into space as he had been for the last little while.

"Is that your 'I've given it up as a bad idea' 'mmm'," Rodne inquired archly, "or your 'It's actually nearly ready to start working on' 'mmm'?"

R'dek gave a little sigh and drew his focus back to Rodne. "It may nearly be ready to begin constructing, actually," he answered. "Though I have still not made final decision about the joint support."

"Show me what you're considering," Rodne said, setting his new slate down and gesturing for R'dek to hand him one of the larger broken pieces of his old slate. He buffed his old notations off and handed it, and his stylus, back to R'dek. Yes, he'd wanted to spend time on his own work, but R'dek needed him and, shocking though it was, even to Rodne, he'd learned, over the years, how to be a good partner to the man. He'd also learned, over the years, that it was not such a hard thing to devote himself to his lover from time to time, for R'dek did the same for him, and he knew full well how much he cherished it.

They discussed it over the rest of the evening, even as Caresn and Loren returned to make dinner for the four of them, and by bedtime Rodne had convinced R'dek to combine the elements of two of his designs, and to negotiate for the materials from Aberam first thing the next morning. This worked well for Rodne, because this mission had R'dek away and busy for the better part of the morning, leaving him the private time he craved to do his work. By the time R'dek returned, bearing a meat stuffed bread, still warm from the ovens, as well as the materials for the boot, he'd confirmed his theory.

"It's in two days," he told R'dek. "The Day of Balance. I told Li'bet that I thought it might be then, but these observations confirm it."

"That's good," R'dek replied, setting down a large shoulder bag containing a variety of pieces of leather. "Everyone is preparing for it. Aberam asked if you would be well enough to tell your stories as you usually do."

"Probably," Rodne said with only a little grimace. "I have an idea of which stories I'll be telling this year, anyhow."

"Ooh! Really?" said Li'bet, just coming in with Caresn and Loren. "Which ones? Or would you rather keep it a secret?" Rodne looked away, giving a bit of a sheepish smile. He could not help but be flattered at the anticipation so many people expressed for his story telling, even if he still did not understand the attraction in the least.

"No," he replied with a shrug. "There's no need to keep it secret, really. I'll be telling the stories of The Sleeping Princess and The Fire Lizard. I figure I haven't told those in a while."

"You're right, you haven't," Li'bet agreed, "and I'm looking forward to them. May I be allowed disseminate this privileged information?"

Rodne had to chuckle, finally, as Li'bet's adoring tone was just a bit over the top, and R'dek was ginning happily -something Rodne had not seen in a while. "Yes, yes, please disseminate this vital news to my handful of adoring fans," he said with an eye-roll and an imperious wave of his hand. "Also you can tell them that the Day of Balance is most definitely in two days, just as I predicted."

"Excellent!" Li'bet replied, her enthusiasm unfeigned now. "Marak'm may well be back from trading by then, and with luck the weather will hold as well."

"Feels like it," said Loren, who Rodne knew had an uncanny sense for the weather. He and Careson had come to perch on the edge of their bed while Caresn unwrapped a bundle that contained some seedy rolls, strips of smoked venison and a block of goat cheese. Rodne eyed the cheese hungrily even as he and the others bade Li'bet farewell, and when she'd gone he offered up a large slice of the meat filled bread he and R'dek were sharing.

"Wanna trade for some cheese?" he asked Loren and Caresn. Caresn agreed with a chuckle, commenting with approval on Rodne's improved appetite. As he did, Rodne noticed some sort of meaningful looks being exchanged between Loren and R'dek and remembered that Loren and Caresn had been out with R'non, trying out Loren's new bow for the first time.

"Well?" R'dek finally gave way. "How did it go, Loren? Did it work?"

"If by 'work' you mean, could I shoot an arrow to the moon with that thing?" Loren teased with a wide grin on his face. "Then I guess the answer would be yes."

"Yes!" R'dek crowed, throwing back his head and punching the air with an upraised fist. Rodne's heart lifted to see his lover so happy again, especially happy in his work.

"Hell, I bet I could've hit those raiders in Twin Groves without even leaving Lakeside," Loren went on enthusiastically, but beside him Rodne could feel R'dek go still.

"But you would not, yes?" the toolmaker said carefully. "Not now, please... this bow, it must be for the hunting of beasts only, not men?"

Loren's expression turned serious but not, Rodne was relieved to see, disappointed. "Okay," he said with a nod. "I think maybe I could feel that, in the bow. It's for a hunter, not a warrior."

"Yes, yes, exactly," R'dek replied, his voice steeped with relief. "You have it exactly."

"And that's as it should be, love," Caresn added, passing a significant look Loren's way.

"No arguments here," Loren said, lifting his hands. "I've learned my lesson, too."

"You ought to go out after lunch with Loren, and see for yourself, R'dek," Rodne suggested, his mouth still partially full of bread and cheese. "I believe I feel an afternoon nap coming on, myself."

"You should," Loren confirmed, "and after that there's a big handful of folks who've been asking me and Li'bet if we can't have a meeting with you and Shef'hred and everyone who's interested in learning about the horses. Li'bet's thinking about having a lottery or something if people want to claim ownership of any of the horses, but right now people just want to know about them."

R'dek shook his head in chagrin. "I confess," he said, "I never in my life thought that I would be called upon to speak as an expert on horses. I know a little about them, yes, but..."

"Of course, Shef'hred is the real expert," Loren said, "but people will want to hear a second point of view..."

"Especially from someone who isn't a complete stranger," Rodne put in.

"I am not exactly a resident of Lakeside either, you know," R'dek replied. "And I have only been in the vicinity for a few summers."

"Aye, but you are still more of a known quantity than Shef'hred, lad," Caresn pointed out. "And that's what folks want."

R'dek conceded the point as he and Loren went out to play with his new bow, and Caresn remained in his hut, preparing and organizing some of the herbs he'd gathered recently. Rodne fell asleep to the sound of Caresn's quiet mutterings to himself, and the pungent odors of the plants and other substances he used in his craft.

The following day -another in a succession of cloudy but temperate and windless days- Rodne allowed himself to be coaxed out of Caresn's hut in order to look over the progress that had been made in the building of the new dock. R'dek accompanied him as he made his slow and careful way down to the lake shore, but the ache in his ribs was all but forgotten when Rodne got a look at how far they'd come.

All six upright posts were set in place, the long beams that would support the decking were secured and the first few decking planks had already been laid, Rodne was delighted to observe as Hallen spotted them approaching, laying down his tools to greet them.

"Fair day to you both," he called, "and it is especially good to see you up and looking so well, Stargazer."

"My recovery has been slow but steady," Rodne replied airily to hide the slight awkwardness he still felt at being addressed by this title -though he certainly preferred it to 'Seer'.

"This is good news," replied Hallen, "and you can now see that our progress has also been steady, though not necessarily slow. Does it meet with your satisfaction?" Hallen's smile was wide, and Rodne knew he was being humored, but also that Hallen meant much of it sincerely. Hallen really did hold him in great respect, Rodne had come to realize lately, and he did it, thank the Gods, without the fawning adoration he got from Trinka. As to the progress on the dock, well Rodne was sure that if he bothered to look closely he'd find countless mistakes and incompetently assembled bits, but he found he just wasn't in a complaining mood today. Must be because he was still recovering from his fit.

"It's, ah... it's actually looking quite good," he said instead, ignoring R'dek's indulgent smile.

"Wow, high praise indeed!" Shef'hred, striding down to the lake shore with stack of decking planks on one shoulder inserted himself into the conversation. He dropped his load with a clatter, onto the pile growing at the foot of the dock and then turned to Rodne as he straightened and loosened his shoulders. Is it true, what folks here have been telling me?" he asked. "You really gonna tell stories here tomorrow night? I thought you were a 'stargazer'." The former raider made stupid 'mystical gestures' with his hands as he spoke.

Rodne rolled his eyes. "I actually consider myself a... student, of sorts, of the stars," he said loftily, "and these stories might be considered... some of the things I've learned from them."

Rather than continuing to mock him, however, Shef'hred tilted his head thoughtfully and said, "Huh... that actually sounds kinda cool."

"It does?" said Rodne, caught entirely off guard.

"Sure," Shef'hred replied. "You know I've learned a thing or two from the stars myself."

"Oh really?" Rodne retorted, meaning to sound skeptical, but also possibly sounding a little eager. "Such as...?"

"Mostly how not to get lost," Shef'hred answered. "Had an uncle that showed me that trick when I was a kid."

"Naturally," Rodne said thoughtfully, nodding to himself. "That would be a useful skill for a wandering people such as yours. We should compare what we know sometime, Shef'hred. You might actually have some new ideas, and you'll certainly learn a lot."

"In all modesty," R'dek smirked, hands behind his back.

"Modesty is for chumps," Rodne quipped back and Shef'hred laughed out loud. Their conversation was interrupted then by the crash of another arm load of planks being vigorously dropped on the pile nearby, and this was punctuated by a loud complaint.

"So the barbarian gets to slack?" Gefeir snapped to Hallen.

"Did you wish to take a short break as well, Gefeir?" Hallen replied evenly.

"I've no need of such coddling," the hunter scowled, turning to march back up the shoreline to where they were splitting the planks. Rodne found himself unexpectedly relieved at the man's departure; there was something about him -his voice, his body language- that set Rodne on edge.

"Guess I oughta wrap my break up, though," Shef'hred said, exchanging a glance with Hallen. "We're trying to get all the planking cut and laid before the festivities start tomorrow."

"Surely you will succeed," R'dek commented. "If you continue at the rate you have been working so far."

"Yep," Shef'hred confirmed. "But I'd better get back to it anyways. Good to see you up and about Rodne," he finished as he set off again. Rodne blinked as he watched him go, wondering how the former raider continued to surprise him.

"Is it really true that he and Li'bet are...?" Rodne gestured vaguely.

"I have had several corresponding and... rather vivid descriptions from various... ear witnesses," R'dek confirmed, glancing sidelong over at Hallen, who smiled, his eyes twinkling. Ah, he would have been one of the 'witnesses', naturally, Rodne realized, as his hut was not far from the Headwoman's.

"It's a fine thing that our headwoman finally has someone to share her bed," Hallen said. "And he is a good man, no matter what others say. I would be sorry if some of the more... closed minded individuals among us made him feel unwelcome here, and not only for Li'bet's sake." Hallen cast a dark look in the direction Gefeir, and Shef'hred, had gone.

Rodne nodded, comforted by Hallen's firm stance, but troubled as well to know that, even if they did not have their way, men like Gefeir had already done much damage, by splitting Lakeside so sharply. They could see to it that the split remained, as long as Shef'hred did, rubbing salt in the wound of Lakeside's social fabric so that it might not ever heal. Suddenly Rodne felt homesick for his cave, and a little tired, and R'dek sensed it right away.

"Shall we return to Caresn's hut now?" he asked. "We could get a little bit to eat, and you could rest, yes?"

"Probably not a bad idea," Rodne answered, letting R'dek guide him homeward.

"All my ideas are good, Rodne," R'dek said compelling Rodne to snort and punch him in the arm, with his good hand. This was much better, he thought to himself. R'dek was much more like his old self and after the Day of Balance they two of them could begin preparing to return to their own home, too long neglected. That day could not come soon enough for Rodne. 

***


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Day of Festivities... and a disruption.

By tradition, Midsummers Day in Lakeside featured contests of strength and agility, such as races, wrestling, marksmanship and distance thrown with a spear or sling stone. There would be contests for the Autumn Day of Balance too, but of a different sort. On this day which, like the ones that preceded it, came with gray skies, little wind and mild temperature, but with a promise of rain later on, there would be music contests, for singing, drumming and piping, and a 'liar's' contest.

They'd had, in years past, a story telling contest, but after Rodne began to win every single year, it had been decided that there wasn't really any point. The liar's contest was a favorite with the fishermen, however, often involving stories about unbelievably giant fish that got away, and Rodne never entered. There were always at least some grains of truth in his stories, he insisted.

They often got visitors from other villages for these contests, and this year was no exception. Late on the afternoon of the day before their celebrations a trio of young men from a village to the north came, carrying their drums with them, and just at dusk Marak'm arrived, bearing a happy wealth of trade goods (including several flasks of lightning water traded on R'dek's behalf). Accompanying him, along with Demery, were a handful of aspirants for the various contests, including a young man who, Marak'm said, might just have a chance of beating Sitakhus at pipe playing.

More arrived the next morning, including a woman from Twin Groves who wished to enter in the singing contest. She'd entered in years past, so she was known in Lakeside, though last year she'd come with a babe on her hip -a son. This year she came alone. Rodne had heard her before, and privately thought that she ought to have won, but there was a long standing rivalry in Lakeside for the singing prize, between Aberam's daughter, Lineina, and the duo of Rinta and Lerre. Lineina was a great beauty, sought by nearly every single man in Lakeside (including Gefeir), and a fair singer as well, though many thought her spoiled and haughty.

Rinta and Lerre's singing was nearly legendary in Lakeside, but they did not have quite the following that Lineina did, and Rodne knew that Li'bet wracked her brain every year trying to find impartial judges for the singing contest. This year, she had confided in him, she thought she finally had an answer, as she had given that honor to Teleya and R'non. Teleya was a fine singer, and could therefore be considered a good judge of singing, and R'non was sure to be incorruptible, regardless of his musical knowledge, or lack thereof.

Most important of all, neither were from Lakeside, and so entirely removed from the ongoing controversy and divided loyalties surrounding this contest, and Rodne thought it a brilliant idea. In the end, it almost was.

The festivities began late in the afternoon, with a demonstration and sort of mini contest between Loren and R'non, and their longbows. There would be proper contest next midsummer, but for now, everyone was curious to see how these new weapons worked, and curious as well to see how Lorene -the home town favorite but newcomer to the long bow- fared against the more skilled visitor. In the end R'non was easily able to shoot his arrows farther than Loren, though they were quite closely matched in marksmanship. It was, in truth, a remarkable achievement for a man who had been practicing with his new bow for only a handful of days, and R'non said so plainly enough to the gathered crowd.

A number of villagers remained with the two archers near the north entrance to ask questions and get a closer look as the rest made their way back to the green where the liar's contest would begin. They stayed to speak with R'dek as well -to ask about what kind of trade he might make for another such bow, how long it might take and what materials might be needed. Rodne stayed with him, of course, and so the first 'liar', one of the fishermen, had nearly finished his when they finally arrived on the green.

Rodne laughed along with the rest of the of those gathered as one ridiculous fish story after another was told, but he agreed with the judges, in the end, that the funniest had been told by Kubia. The unlucky fisherman had told how his burns had actually been gotten in an epic struggle with a giant, fire-breathing carp, which he had caught no less than three times, but which had burned its way free each time. R'dek happily awarded him the prize of a flask of lightning water, but had felt obliged to offer a runner-up prize to Yinte, who had told a marvelously over-the-top version of the battle against the raiders.

Even Shef'hred had laughed at the lad's description of how R'dek's clever invention had allowed Lakeside's hunters to hurl ten spears at once, how R'non's magic bow had sent real lightning bolts into the ranks of the invaders, how Rodne's confounding spells had fooled the raiders' horses into thinking it was night, and how Shef'hred himself stood as tall as an acorn tree and rode a horse that breathed fire. R'dek presented the boy with a pair of the snowshoes he'd made while convalescing, and Rodne reflected that in the future it would probably be this version of the battle the most Lakesiders would remember, not because they believed in such things, but because it was easier than remembering the real fear, death and loss that had befallen them that day.

The drumming contest followed -Hallen defending his prowess on his big box drum against a trio of newcomers from a nearby village. In this contest, each group took turns challenging the other with increasingly complex rhythms and it went on so long that eventually both the contestants and the judges agreed to declare a tie and all the drummers split the award of the bag of special fruit and bear meat pemmican Trinka had made for this winner of this contest. 

The winner of the piping contest would receive a beautiful, copper-bound, wooden flute that Marak'm had acquired in a trade, and all the contestants were highly motivated to win it. Rodne had never heard such beautiful and skillful playing, and was glad he was not having to judge a winner. Trinka and Zuszka conferred for some time after the contestants had all finished, but in the end awarded the treasured prize to Sitakhus, who was clearly overjoyed.

There were no hard feelings among the other contestants either, Rodne was pleased to see, and when Sitakhus sincerely invited them to return and challenge him anew in the following year, they promised most enthusiastically to do so, and to take the prize next time. There seemed, Rodne noted, a general good feeling among all those gathered as the singing contest started, and he commented to R'dek as the contestants came forward, that perhaps this year's competition would be free of the acrimony that had marred it in the past. R'dek hopefully concurred, handing Rodne the basket of dried fruit pieces that was circulating among the audience.

When Li'bet displayed the elegant shawl she had woven to be awarded to the winner of the singing contest an anticipatory hush ran through the crowd. Li'bet always made some fine weaving for the winner of this contest and this year was no different. Rinta and Lerre each had one such piece, and Lineina had two from years past, Rodne knew, and so this year's contest stood as a sort of tie breaker in their lengthy rivalry. For the most part, it was a good natured rivalry, but Rodne had also seen how some of the singers' friends and family members were not always so sportsmanlike about it.

Rinta and Lerre agreed to go first, and sang three new songs, finishing with a teasing song about going to pick berries in the forest so laced with double-entendres that Rodne nearly choked on his dried fruit. Rodne could see R'non and Teleya, sitting in the front as judges of this contest, rocking with laughter as they listened, R'non's loud guffaws were audible over the whole crowd.

"If they wrote that song," R'dek commented, his eyes sparkling with merriment, "then they should definitely win."

"You'd think," Rodne replied, "but Lineina's not going down without a fight, and I have a feeling about that woman from Twin Groves."

R'dek nodded. "She did not come here today on a whim," he agreed. "She will have something special for us, I am certain."

It was Lineina who stood before them next, and she had only one song -a well known and lengthy ballad about a pair of lovers transformed into swans. Remarkably, though the whole village knew this song so well most of them could sing it themselves, Lineina's performance was so dramatic and expressive, that even Rodne remained riveted until the end. The audience burst into cheers and applause at it's conclusion, the two lovers defeating the evil enchantress who had cursed them and reuniting at last. Rodne exchanged an I-told-you-so look with R'dek who smiled and bowed his head in acknowledgment of Rodne's superior wisdom. Then they both looked up to see what the next contestant had to offer.

"My name is Fenilly, of Twin Groves," she said when she stood before the attentive audience, "and I promised the Gods some summers ago that I would sing here every year until I won, no matter what." She fell silent for a moment as Rodne and everyone else present had to consider what 'no matter what' had meant to this young woman this year.

"So," she said after this reflective pause. "Here I am, may it please the Gods."

Then she sang. It was a lullaby that she sang, one Rodne had never heard before (but then Rodne had heard very few lullabies in his life.) It wasn't very long, with only three verses and the first one repeated at the end, but the melody was beautiful, soaring and soulful, and though it was not a sad song, there was a strain of profoundest sorrow in Fenilly's perfect voice as she sang. Rodne was mortified to feel his eyes prickling as the song drew to an end, but then he heard R'dek sniffle and soon realized that there was not a dry eye anywhere to be seen... save for Fenlilly's. She stood, proud and brave and dry eyed before her shattered audience, and she did not even move when the applause began, slowly growing to include heartfelt cheers and cries of acclaim.

It was only when R'non and Teleya stood, exchanging a wordless look and then together placing the prize shawl over her shoulders that her face broke into a wide, joyful grin, and she lifted her arms heavenward to thank the Gods. There was more applause and cheering at Fenilly's gracious acceptance of her award, but then another voice, harsh with anger, cut through the congratulatory sounds of the crowd.

"What travesty is this?!" Gefeir's unmistakable voice could be heard by everyone present. "You will give the prize to this witch?!"

A shocked silence fell over the green, and the crowd parted to let the hunter stride forward. Li'bet, already standing near the front, stepped up to put herself between Gefeir and the singer, as did R'non and Teleya. 

"Gefeir!" The headwoman's voice was sharp with anger. "Such words shame you and everyone in our village! You will take them back this instant!"

Gefeir came to stand facing Li'bet, his posture clearly intimidating and something about it struck Rodne as both familiar and oddly horrifying. He hardly realized he was moving, circling the crowd to draw gradually closer, to see better.

"I will not!" Gefeir replied, eliciting a number of shocked gasps from the crowd. "You are influenced, Headwoman, by foreigners, and everyone here knows it. We may let your... momentary trysts pass, but this..." Gefeir gestured angrily at the singer from Twin Groves, clutching at her newly won prize in shock. "This goes too far!"

Lineina, Rodne noted in passing, did not seem to take any comfort in what he supposed was meant to be a gesture in her support, but was instead seeking the protection of her father's arms. None of this was of particular importance to Rodne, however, because he really needed to get a closer look at Gefeir -at his threatening body language, the bullying, over-confident tone in his voice, because he'd seen this before, he had...

There were murmurings in the crowd around him now that Gefeir was right, and they'd had too much of foreigners in their village of late, and before him Teleya was calling Gefeir an imbecile because she was the one who had awarded the singing prize, not Li'bet, but all that dropped away to nothing when Rodne found himself standing in an opening in the crowd, his arm raising to point as he all but quivered in rage to shout, "You... you cowardly bastard!!"

Suddenly every head was turned in his direction, but to Rodne it was as if no one else was present save for himself and the hunter. "You fucking broke my hand, you piece of shit!! You sneak up on me in the middle of the night when no one's around, you fucking destroy my notes, you threaten me and then you... you fucking beat the crap out of me and and then run off and leave me like a fucking coward so everyone will think Shef'hred did it!!"

Rodne paused only to draw breath, launching quickly into a further tirade before Gefeir could get in a single word. "You think Shef'hred is a barbarian?" he asked the gathered crowd. "R'dek spit in his face, twice, and he hasn't lifted a finger to harm the man, even though he's been free for days." Rodne gestured back in R'dek's direction and nearly poked him in the eye when he discovered that the toolmaker had come up to stand behind him. Of course.

"This man, on the other hand," Rodne moved his accusing finger to point back at Gefeir, "tried to run me out of town for calling him a pathetic loser in front of a bunch of people who, hello, already knew that, and then when I said I wouldn't go, took advantage of his superior size and strength to break my hand, crack three of my ribs, black my eye and wrench my knee."

There was a low buzz of discussion through the crowd for a moment, and then Hallen's resonant voice cut through it. "Do you refute these accusations, Gefeir?" he asked.

"Do I actually need to?" Gefeir's voice was insultingly incredulous. "Is there anyone who takes the word of this deranged imbecile seriously?"

This might be, Rodne considered, an incredibly stupid question, considering how he had received half a lifetime of trade goods from many Lakesiders, for the value of his word alone, but he also knew that at moments like this people were prone to forget such truths. He prepared to bristle indignantly, for all that he knew that he himself considered these words to be little more than nonsense. Happily, it was not necessary.

"I do," Sitakhus shouted out from somewhere in the crowd. "For one thing, there's no one in Lakeside with any cause to harm him, not even Shef'hred."

"Are you simple?" another voice called out. "There's not a man, woman or child in this village he hasn't insulted. By rights, someone ought to have taught him some manners long ago."

"And yet, in all this time, no one has," Hallen interjected. "And if, by rights, anyone wished to 'teach him some manners' as you suggested, then it should have been settled in public, before witnesses, not alone in the dark."

"And is that not just the sort of thing a savage like Shef'hred would do?" Gefeir cried. "Not one of us!"

"Maybe, except Shef'hred's probably the only person in Lakeside the stargazer _hasn't_ insulted," someone, possibly Marak'm, said with a laugh. This, in turn, elicited a number of chuckles from the crowd -Rodne could even hear Shef'hred's distinctive guffaw- but Gefeir's countenance went dark with fury. Well timed or ill, R'dek chose that moment to step forward with his own observation.

"Also, Gefeir," he said loudly, "you are the only man here foolish enough to take Rodne's insults seriously."

"As I am entitled to!" Gefeir shouted, apparently abandoning his attempt to convince everyone of Shef'hred's guilt. "Any man who so disrespects me in front of others should have to face the consequences of his words!" This sentiment was echoed with approval throughout the crowd.

"That he may," Li'bet stepped in now, and Rodne was relieved to see that everyone quieted to hear her. "But it is not customary that he should have to face those consequences in secret and in the dark."

"And is it customary for the enemy of our village, who comes here to murder and steal," Gefeir turned back to the headwoman, venom in his tone, "that his consequences are to be welcomed like a guest among us, and taken into your bed?" Rodne could hear gasps run through the crowd at these words, and standing beside him again, felt R'dek's hand tighten on his arm.

"Who I take into my bed, hunter," Li'bet's voice was sharp, frosty cold, and steady as a rock, "is neither any business of yours nor anyone else's."

"Okay, you know what..." That was Shef'hred, Rodne saw, stepping forward at last, though he had kept himself out of the discussion until now. His words and manner seemed casual, but there was a dangerous, knife sharp edge in his voice that even Rodne could hear. "I'm pretty sure, stranger, that your real problem is with me, isn't it?"

"This whole village has a problem with you, barbarian," Gefeir snarled, "whether they, or you, realize it or not."

"So," Shef'hred drawled, misleadingly casual. "You're saying that you know better then nearly everyone here -better than the headwoman, better than the stargazer and his clever friend... and you're saying you know better than me too, is that right, stranger?"

"If you are deluded enough to think that you will be allowed to stay here among civilized folk," Gefeir hissed, "eating our food and enjoying our comforts, then you _are_ a fool, as well as a savage."

Now the gathered villagers fell completely silent -so silent that Rodne could hear, some distance away, the fishing boats knocking gently against the new dock where they were tied, as they rocked on the lake's gentle waves. 

"You know, stranger," Shef'hred's voice was dangerously quiet. "I can let the 'savage' part pass because, well, it's not too far from the truth..." Shef'hred stepped closer still to the glowering hunter, confronting his open menace with an insultingly casual pose. "But I don't take kindly to being called a fool."

Rodne felt the hair on the back of his neck rise at Shef'hred's tone now, and he saw that the rider had leaned forward to where his face was little more than a handspan from Gefeir's.

"And I don't take kindly to having to share my village with murderous, thieving, honorless barbarians," Gefeir said, openly provocative, and not giving way in the least.

"Seems to me," Shef'hred replied, his tone still dangerously quiet, but now carrying a frightening edge, "that the good folks here don't take so kindly to sharing their village with a mannerless, cowardly bully, but I've no objection to settling matters, right here and right now. How about you, coward?"

It seemed to Rodne that there could be only one response to such an open challenge, but Gefeir held his tongue at first, and his expression became difficult to read. After a moment, however, he drew back a hair, crossing his arms over his chest. "Settle?" he asked, his tone incredulous now. "With the likes of you? I think not. I'm not such a fool as to think that I'll get any kind of fair fight from you!"

"The hell?" Shef'hred turned with astonished amusement to the circle of gathered villagers. "How many witnesses does the man want? I've no knife," he spread his arms wide. "Haven't had one since I gave mine to the toolmaker there, and you're bigger than me. But I suppose you'd rather settle our business by sneaking up on me after dark when I'm all alone. Clearly, that's more your style."

Rodne immediately saw the sense in Shef'hred's appeal to the watching crowd, but it meant partially turning his back to the treacherous hunter. Not even the crowd's collective gasp, then, gave the rider enough warning to defend himself from Gefeir's sudden attack. The hunter struck like a snake, drawing a knife from his boot, grabbing Shef'hred from behind and pulling him in to where his could hold the stone blade against his throat.

"You've never needed a knife to spread your poison, barbarian," Gefeir hissed, "but I have mine, and I'm happy to use it to cut your poison off at its source."

"Hunter!" The headwoman's voice was sharp, condemning as she stepped forward to address him. "Have you no shame? With every word and act you bring greater and greater dishonor to yourself and this village. How can you imagine that anyone here will see justice in this... this treachery?"

"And I say treachery merits treachery!" Gefeir countered boldly. "Is there anyone here, besides this lust addled woman, who will stand before me and say that this man deserves anything more than to be put down like a rabid dog?"

To Rodne's horror and dismay, there was actually a long moment of silence, but it was broken by a faint creaking noise, so loud in the taught silence that every head turned toward it. It was Loren they all saw, standing with his legs spread wide, his new longbow drawn and an arrow nocked, aimed directly at Gefeir. "I do," he said steadily.

***


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shunning, and a celebration.

At his side, Rodne felt R'dek's hand tighten almost painfully on his arm. "No..." the toolmaker whispered in horror. "He must not...!"

"He knows, he knows," Rodne whispered back. "He wouldn't... but Gefeir doesn't know..."

His grip on Rodne's arm loosening a little, R'dek nodded, his gaze locked on the tableau before them, as was every person's there.

"He's not a dog, Gefeir," Loren was saying, and Rodne wondered if Loren realized how closely his words echoed Caresn's, from their earlier fight. "He's a man, and unlike animals, men can change, for the better, and for the worse."

"And I say the same," Rodne was surprised to feel R'dek release his death grip on Rodne's arm and stride forward, adding his voice to Loren's.

"No one here has more cause to despise this man than I, save perhaps a few of our visitors," R'dek gestured toward Teleya and R'non, and toward Fenilly. "Many of you know of how I first greeted this man, some of you even saw how I addressed him in the vilest of terms, and treated him with hostility and disrespect. I say to all of you now that I was wrong, and that this man endeavors daily to prove himself to all of us. Any man can say he has changed, or that he has not, but we may all know the truth or falseness of his words by his actions, and I say this man's actions have shown him to be a man of honor, whereas _this_ man," R'dek gestured with contempt toward Gefeir, "has shown all of us that he is a creature of no honor whatsoever!"

"I would speak to this matter as well," Hallen said now, stepping forward to stand beside R'dek. "As I was the one who set him to the tasks he has preformed to prove his worth, and worked at his side as he labored. I testify before you all that he never once objected to any task I set him, no matter how difficult or humble, and that he worked as hard as any man there -harder than some. As the toolmaker has said, it is not a man's words that prove his character, but his deeds, and so, should any of you say that all I have to offer you in this man's defense is words, I say to look and see this proof of his deeds." Hallen's long arm now swept up to indicate the new fishing dock, a little distance away but visible to most from the green.

"Shef'hred is no fisherman," Hallen's resonant voice continued, "and whether he stays among us or not, he will likely never see any use from these efforts himself, but the fruits of his labors will remain for the benefit of generations of fishermen here. I cannot think what more proof any person could need of his honor and worthiness to live among us."

"Yeah, and I can't think what more proof anyone would need," Kadam said, striding forward to add her own argument, "of what a skunk and a coward this bastard is." She gestured angrily toward Gefeir and his captive. "I mean, what the hell kind of low-life asshole holds a knife to an unarmed man's throat, no matter what he may have done? Oh, and for the record," she turned now to address the hunter spitefully. "I've never had any man in my bed, and I've no interest in this one, so you can save your comments about my being 'lust addled'... but if you think that any woman in Lakeside will _ever_ let you near them after this? You're the one who is deluded. Seriously."

"Nor in Twin Groves either," Fenilly surprised everyone by adding suddenly, giving a mirthless chuckle as she spoke. Her words seemed to give voice to the crowd, however, or at least the women in it, Rodne noted, as one after another they called out to affirm Kadam's sentiments, or their own disgust with Gefeir.

"You have lost your argument, hunter," Li'bet spoke now, her voice condemning. "Release your captive and dishonor us no more."

"And drop the knife," Loren added, his own voice hard as rock. "Now."

As much as he had cause to despise the man, Rodne could not help but feel a little sorry for Gefeir as he looked over the gathered villagers, his eyes wide with disbelief and astonishment.

"This is no justice!" he cried, hurling his knife to the ground angrily and pushing Shef'hred away with a shove. "You will all come to rue the day you let this man live among you, mark my words!"

The moment Shef'hred was freed Loren lowered his bow, stumbling a little as he changed his stance and his injured foot did not support him. Caresn was at his side in a flash, however, steadying him, and Rodne also saw R'dek slump a little in relief where he stood. He was moving back, to stand at his lover's side once again when he saw another figure making her way slowly through the crowd, limping a bit from her aging hip joints, to stand before Gefeir.

"It is you, hunter, who will rue the day you raised your hand against a man protected by the Gods!" Trinka proclaimed, waving a hand in Rodne's direction and then pointing a condemning finger at Gefeir. "And as I would not risk the Gods' displeasure I say to you, Gefeir, that never again will you have bread or any goods from my ovens, lest they be ashes alone, of the sort you will taste in your mouth whenever you think of this day! This I swear before all of you present, and before the Gods!"

"And I will swear likewise," said Aberam, coming to the fore now, his daughter still held close. "Never again shall you have any hides or goods that I have made, for any labor or goods or your own, and any that you have of mine now, I would have them give you no warmth or good of any sort, for as long as I live. So say I before you all, and before the Gods."

It was as Gefeir looked upon Lineina's cold and merciless face that Rodne saw the last of the defiance seemed to drain out of the man.

"Lineina..." he began, pleading, but she cut him short.

"Silence!" she cried, her voice icy. "May the Gods strike you down should ever my name cross your lips again! And _I_ rue the day I ever found it pleasant to hear!" She turned then and stormed away to stand, with her father and the others who had just spoken, all of them with their backs to the disgraced hunter.

"Never again will you have any tool from my hands," R'dek spoke now. "And should one come to you, or should you have any such in your possession now, then may it fail you when you need it most, may it turn against you and damage what you would mend and do naught but thwart any effort you would make. So says R'dek the Toolmaker before the Gods and all who hear these words now." He strode forward then, to pick up the knife Gefeir had dropped, jogged the short distance toward the lake shore and hurled the offending weapon with all his might so that it fell far from shore and promptly sank. He returned then to stand with the others with his back turned to the hunter.

It was Gefeir's sister, N'lara who stepped forward next, and Rodne could see the tears in her sorrowful eyes. "I speak to you now, as my mother and father will not," she said, her voice rough with grief. "They tell me to say that they have no son anymore, and I say I have no more any brother. Never again will you be welcome to take shelter in my home, food of my making or warmth and comfort from my hearth. You have shamed us and yourself beyond any words I can speak, so we will speak no more, hunter. This I say before all Gods and men who hear my words."

Then she too turned her back on the disgraced hunter, leaving him stunned and speechless. One after another, many of the other hunters and fishermen, and craftsmen and women of Lakeside stood before Gefeir to speak similar words, and one by one they turned their backs to him, so that eventually only Rodne and Li'bet remained facing the man. Rodne didn't really know what he might add to what had been said before, and finally only crossed his arms and said, "The stars have nothing to say to you," before turning his back and standing beside R'dek. That left only the headwoman.

"Hunter Gefeir," she addressed him sadly. "I do not know what first set you on this dark course, but though you have been given ample opportunities to turn aside, you have not, and now it is too late. I told Rider Shef'hred that we have no beggars in Lakeside, and I would not have you be the first, but since it has been made clear that you will have no home nor sustenance nor honest labor here, you must seek these things elsewhere."

"Unfortunate stranger," she continued, her voice strong and serious as she made her declaration, "the people of Lakeside have shunned you, and you must therefore be made exile from this village. You may take such belongings as are yours, and which you believe may do you any good, and you may have until sundown to gather these things and depart. By the time the sun rises tomorrow you are commanded to be far from here, and never to return unless you are prepared to make yourself humble to those you have wronged... and that includes me. So say I, Li'bet, Headwoman of Lakeside, before all people and Gods present."

Rodne did not see her turn her back then, as his was turned already, but Rodne knew she must have, for a long moment of silence hung over the green, and then there were the sounds of heavy, angry footfalls moving past them all. They paused when they came to the edge of the green, however, as Gefeir give vent to his anger one last time.

"You... you are all fools!" he shouted. "Every last one of you, and you will all come to regret this day, as sure as the sun will rise and more savages will come to remind you of your foolishness!" Rodne just couldn't let him get in the last word, however.

"I'm rubber and you're glue!"* he shouted spitefully after the departing hunter. "Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks on you!"

The childish rejoinder elicited a handful of wry chuckles from the crowd, breaking the solemn and unhappy silence that hung over the green, and no one heard Gefeir's last muttered curses as he slunk away.

**

*The author is perfectly aware that it will be several millenia before rubber is actually known in these parts. Translating this expression into period materials, however, resulted in 'I'm an inflated pig's bladder and you're pine pitch', which the author determined ineffective and unhandy. She begs the reader to take the dialogue as written, in the spirit in which it was intended, rather than for it's anachronistic references.

**

"My friends," Trinka's brash voice broke over the crowd now. "As the contests have concluded, now is the time to honor and celebrate the winners with feasting, music and story telling. The fire is laid and the feast awaits us there -shall we not find ourselves there directly?"

Various shouts of approval came in response and the crowd began to break up, most heading towards the fire pit, with a few detouring via their own homes to gather additional foodstuff, blankets for dining on, and additional garb, for the sun was setting and the evening turning chill. No one, Rodne noted, was going to the bachelor's lodge, however, as this was where Gefeir had gone to collect his few belongings, and no one wanted to encounter him before he had left.

Rodne turned to R'dek, meaning to tell him that he would make the run over to their shelter to gather R'dek's fur blanket and the dishes they'd borrowed from Caresn, so that R'dek could save them a good place by the fire, when he saw that R'dek's attention, and that of many others, was entirely taken up with the sight of Li'bet and Shef'hred, locked in an astonishingly passionate embrace.

"Well that is one way to put an end to the gossip," R'dek quipped wryly.

"Some of it. Maybe," Rodne snorted, turning away with the thought that he never, ever needed to see people doing things like that with their tongues in public. Evidently, he was not the only one, as he heard Kvena'ah shout, "Get a hut!"

The sun was just resting on the western horizon, heavy and red -it's color bleeding amber and purple over the lowering clouds- when Rodne and R'dek met again at the firepit with the rest of the village. The fire kindled on the Autumn Night of Balance would be kept over the whole of the Winter, until the Spring Day of Balance -if not here, then in the Shaman's own hearth, or in the Headwoman's. It was a tradition that went back to long before Li'bet's day.

"My friends," she addressed the gathered crowd. "Throughout the fair, summer moons, we have known the benevolence of the ever generous sun, but now the time comes, as it must each year, that the sun's power wanes. As we wisely gather the provender of the generosity of the sun and the land for the winter, so do we gather the essence of this last summer sun to keep in our own hearths, to keep us warm and well, during the time to come."

She stepped aside then, and all eyes turned to Caresn, wearing his shaman's headpiece for this sacred duty. Even Rodne felt the power and importance of such moments, for all that he remained skeptical about any actual 'magic' taking place. It never failed to raise a little chill to hear Caresn speaking in his mother tongue, as he did now, the rhythm and rhyme of the words giving Rodne the sense that they were old and sacred.

Caresn held in his hands a little fire pot and a small stick, coated with pitch, and at the climax of his incantation he thrust the twig into the pot, where it blazed up instantly. It was Loren, standing silently at Caresn's side, who took the fire pot when Caresn lowered it, and now Lakeside's shaman held the burning brand high, with both hands, so that the light of the setting sun fell full upon it. As the sun dipped lower and the stick burned brighter, it did almost seem as though the dying sun was gifting Caresn's fire with it's last strength. Then the sun sank below the horizon and Caresn thrust his small fire into the great pile of wood and tinder laid before him and, thanks to the presence of a great deal more pitch, the fire blazed up immediately.

A cheer rose from the crowd as the flames took hold, and in moments at least half the wood was engulfed in flames. Rodne welcomed the heat on his face, for the evening was already turning chilly, and he turned to grin in contentment to R'dek, who he found uncorking no less than two flasks of lightning water. One he sent around the fire to his right, the other he handed to Rodne after taking a long pull. Rodne took his own large swallow, then had to cough a little as the fiery beverage brought tears to his eyes. He passed it on to his left then, as R'dek had directed and turned back to his lover just in time to be seized in an enthusiastic, lightning water flavored kiss. Rodne found himself gazing into a pair of beloved, pale blue eyes, glittering in the firelight when they finally drew apart.

"You were wonderful and brave today," R'dek said, his eyes crinkling at the corners a bit in his joy.

"So were you, you know," Rodne said. "And everyone else... I never thought..."

"But that is because you are an idiot," R'dek said kindly. "Come on, the feast is ready, and you know Trinka will want you to go first."

It was a truly splendid spread, and they returned to their seats with bowls heaped high with delicacies. The drummers started a moment later and Rodne and R'dek fed each other bits of roasted goose and wild rice with dried fruit and onions and smoked goat cheese until they were stuffed, and then went back for flatbreads rolled around berries and nuts preserved in honey, and washed it all down with generous drafts of lightning water. Rodne was well and truly sated, and a little tipsy, when the musicians finally took a break and it was time for him to tell his stories.

"Before I, um, start with the stories," Rodne began, the lightning water filling him with an unaccustomed generosity, "I, ah, wanted you all to know that I'm, you know, not at all mad about... what happened. I mean, you've all, with, you know, one exception, been really... um, nice... through this whole thing... and I appreciate it. A lot."

It took much of Rodne's lightning water inspired courage to look up and meet the eyes of the crowd then, and certainly the glowing adoration on Trinka's face was a little hard to take, but Hallen's good humored approval, Li'bet's affectionate regard, even Shef'hred's teasing smirk, left him with an unfamiliar warm feeling, deeper and more enduring than that which came from the lightning water. It left him just a little stricken, and he had to swallow hard before he began his story.

"So," he finally managed, after that little awkward moment, "it happened in the days when the stars were still young, that a great monster roamed the land..." And as always, once begun, the story all but told itself.

***


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A happy conclusion to the day.

R'dek thought that, although circumstances might have lent some bias to his judgment, Rodne was in his best form ever that night, and that the remarkably enthusiastic response he got at the conclusion of his stories was not at all unwarranted. He himself rewarded Rodne with a big sloppy kiss, which was met with hoots and catcalls from the crowd. Rodne was, happily, just drunk enough not to care... much.

R'dek was prepared to meet Rodne's remaining offended sensibilities with another flatbread with honeyed fruit and nuts, and another measure of lightning water, and these inducements even left Rodne tractable enough that R'dek was able to persuade him to dance a little while later when the musicians began again. Later, as they recovered from their exertions, Rinta and Lerre were coerced into performing the berry picking song again, and by the end many of the audience were singing the highly suggestive chorus along with them. It was as they were singing the last refrain, however, that R'dek felt the first raindrops begin to fall.

There were just a few at first, giving everyone a fair warning, but after only a little while the first gust of rain laden breeze came, and it was sharply chill. "Here comes autumn," R'dek heard Li'bet say as he and Rodne, along with the rest of the crowd by the fire, hastily gathered their belongings. They made one run with dishes and hides over to Caresn's hut, then returned to help him and Loren maneuver a few lively embers from the fire into Caresn's firepot to be rekindled on Caresn's hearth.

The four of them gathered in Caresn's hut to separate out their things from Caresn's in preparation for Rodne and R'dek retiring to their own shelter, and they were just standing at the threshold when a bitterly cold gust came with such force that it pushed past Caresn's heavy door flap, making them all shiver.

"Lads," Caresn offered, gathering up a handful of thong to tie the door closed, "why don't ye spend the night here? I know your shelter will keep the rain off, but it won't keep the cold out much at all."

"Um," said Rodne, exchanging a meaningful glance with R'dek. "Not that you don't have a point, or that I don't appreciate the offer, but, ah..." There could be no question of what Rodne's unspoken objection was, even if Rinta and Lerre's song hadn't put it fresh into all their minds. Now Caresn and Loren were exchanging glances, and R'dek was wondering just how much fun he and Rodne could actually have in their unheated and drafty shelter.

"So..." Loren said thoughtfully. "You know, it's not as if we haven't _heard_ each other before..."

"And if it is dark..." R'dek continued the thought, "and if we were all four... occupied... it would hardly be any different, would it?"

There was a beat or two and then Rodne finally got it. "What, are you kidding?" he spluttered. "It would be way different! I mean... you... would be _right there_..."

"Rodne," R'dek placed a calming hand on his lover's arm. "Think about it for a moment. It is cold and wet and miserable out there, and in our shelter is privacy, yes, but also still cold and miserable. Only not wet. Do you really thing we will have much of a pleasant time out there tonight?"

Rodne was clearly torn. "I... I don't know if I could... you know... with someone else right there..." he worried. R'dek grinned and sidled up close, caressing Rodne's ear with his lips.

"I will make certain, lover," he whispered heatedly. "Have no doubts on that account." Rodne's swallow was loud enough for everyone in Caresn's hut to hear.

"Um..." Rodne squeaked. "Okay."

They ran together, under the shelter of a spare hide of Caresn's, to grab the rest of the bedding from their shelter, and once there could immediately see that they'd made the right decision. It was made clear to them again when they returned, arms full of hides and furs, to the welcome warmth and light of Caresn's hut.

Loren had coaxed the coals they'd brought back from the firepit outside into a cheery blaze in Caresn's fire pit, and by the time they returned it had already driven the chill from the room. It would be warm enough to shed their clothes in no time, although the fire also lit the space quite well -too well, Rodne's dubious glance seemed to communicate.

"It'll burn down shortly," Caresn reassured him with a smile, "once it's warmed the place up a little more."

"Come," R'dek said, drawing Rodne away from the brightly burning fire. "Let us make our preparations while there is still light."

Preparations involved one last dash outside to empty their bladders, and then returning to dry themselves and make up the bed while Caresn found two pots of goose fat and laced up the door flap for the night. The fire had indeed burned down quite a bit by then, though Rodne still looked a little uncomfortable as he sat beside R'dek on the edge of their bed. 

On the other side of the room Loren had shed all but his loin cloth and slipped under the furs, and Caresn was moving to follow him. Though the banked fire still shed a dim light, Caresn and Loren's bed lay mostly in shadows, and once Caresn had joined his lover there nothing could be seen of them but vague shapes moving in the dark. The sounds of rustling clothing and furs soon gave way to quieter noises and R'dek though he heard the slightly moist sound of a kiss. He thought it a splendid idea, but when he pressed his lips to Rodne's, his found his lover tense and hardly responsive.

"I am pretty sure they are not paying any attention to us," he murmured, lifting a hand to caress Rodne's cheek. There was just enough dim light for R'dek to see Rodne's eyes dart over to the shadowed place where Caresn and Loren lay, just as a soft moan could be heard from that very place. Rodne's eyes widened at the sound.

"R'dek... I don't know if I can do this," he muttered, a slight tinge of panic in his voice.

"Shh," R'dek soothed, drawing Rodne fully onto the bed and into the shadows. "Let me distract you."

Rodne was reluctantly compliant, but comply he did, letting R'dek remove both their tunics and leaning close at his lover's prompting. Trying another kiss, R'dek began this one more chastely, patiently waiting for Rodne to relax a little as he let his fingers roam over the smooth, warm contours of Rodne's back, shoulders and chest. When Rodne finally opened to him R'dek rewarded him with a little tweak of his left nipple, and was rewarded in turn with a quiet gasp and an increased heat in Rodne's kiss.

R'dek felt an answering warmth wake within him and, abandoned his restraint, let his kiss turn hungry and heated. Happily, he quickly found in Rodne an equivalent hunger, and let himself be devoured with perfect contentment. It was not long before R'dek began to find the confines of his loin cloth fairly uncomfortable, and had a good idea that Rodne was feeling the same way.

"You know," he said softly, his lips caressing Rodne's ear as he spoke, "if we take our leggings and loincloths off, we can get under the furs."

"Oh hell yes," Rodne muttered, and his fingers were already working at R'dek's lacings before he had even finished speaking. R'dek chuckled quietly and returned the favor. Rodne wouldn't let R'dek actually remove his loincloth till they were both under the furs, but R'dek found that to be no difficulty. Beneath the furs they were both warmer and the last of Rodne's reluctance seemed to vanish. Now he eagerly kissed his way down R'dek's torso -finding his way by touch alone- and before long was nuzzling at the base of R'dek's very erect cock.

From the dark on the other side of the room R'dek could hear a heated chuckle, sudden rustling, and then a sharp moan. R'dek gave his own long, whimpering moan as Rodne took R'dek's cock in his hand, licking it's length and then sucking on the head with relish. Then he had no attention for the other sounds in the hut at all, as the sensation of Rodne's mouth on his cock overwhelmed everything else.

R'dek fell back against the pallet and let Rodne have his way, powerless to do much else. Panting with pleasure, R'dek finally had to get his head out from under the furs so that he could get enough air, and then the sounds from across the room were less muffled and returned to his awareness. The quiet gasps and moans formed a pleasantly arousing counterpoint, R'dek thought, groaning softly and thrusting his hips, to the sensations of Rodne kissing and tonguing and licking his cock.

This went on for some very pleasant time -so long that Rodne was able to catch R'dek completely unawares when he suddenly took R'dek's cock into his mouth, engulfing the whole length of it in delicious wet heat and suction. He gave a long, loud moan, aware that Caresn and Loren would hear it and finding the idea surprisingly arousing. He moaned again, hands reaching down to grasp at Rodne's head, as Rodne slowly drew himself back from R'dek's cock, and then, just as slowly, took it in deeply once more.

There was no directing Rodne once he had begun in such a manner, R'dek knew. Once the man got a plan into his head, nothing would dissuade him -not all the begging in the world, nor fingers clutching and pulling at his hair, as R'dek did now, nor hips thrusting up, seeking that slick heat and suction. Rodne's hands kept R'dek's hips pinned, his rhythm inexorable and unvaried, and the most delicious torment. Unthinking of the ears so close by that would hear it, R'dek groaned out Rodne's name, begging him for something he knew he would not have... not yet, anyhow.

There was a huff of a laugh from the far side of the hut, though R'dek had no idea if it came in response to to his own vocalization or something between Loren and Caresn to which he was not privy. Still, R'dek got the idea that he had possibly provoked something when, a moment later, he heard Caresn's voice cry out, "Gods above!" followed by a slightly malevolent chuckle from Loren, and then a comment whose exact words he could not hear, but sounded in tone something like, 'that'll show you.'

R'dek had to whimper loudly again as Rodne's mouth descended on his aching cock once more, and then there was more discussion from across the room which he could not quite make out. He thought he heard something about, "...ride me... tonight...?" which was answered with something like, "...no chance to hunt..." and "...spear is hungry for..." R'dek only bit his lip and moaned. Far be it from him to ridicule another man's pillow talk, and besides, it had given him an idea.

The moment he had heard Caresn's lust drenched whisper, 'ride me', R'dek became consumed with the desire to just that -to sit astride his lover and let his lover take him from beneath. Though R'dek knew that nothing would induce Rodne to speed up his ministrations, the slightest push from R'dek had him drawing back, though not without making the sweetest little bereft sound.

R'dek knew he was in trouble when the first words that he started to assemble in his mind were in a language Rodne would not understand, but he took himself in hand and soon came up with just enough of the right kind of language to get what he wanted.

"Want," he said, "to ride you. Want you to take me while I... while I..."

It was a truly wonderful thing, R'dek reflected (not for the first time) to have such a brilliant lover. As sketchy as his communication had been, Rodne had not needed anything more. R'dek had hardly gotten the first few words out when Rodne groaned, "Oh, hell yes," and threw off the furs to reach for the pot of goose fat at the side of the bed.

Watching his lover, his proudly erect cock bobbing as he moved around the bed, R'dek was pleased to note that Rodne seemed to have forgotten all about his potential 'audience'. Once he had things arranged to his liking, Rodne lay stretched out on the bed and R'dek moved to kneel, straddling him and then bending forward to kiss him. In the quiet of their kiss, R'dek heard the subtle sound of a jar of goose fat being opened on the other side of the room.

This proved impetus enough for R'dek to draw back from the kiss, his tongue reluctantly disentangling from Rodne's, and it might be that Rodne had heard the sound as well, for the moment the kiss ended Rodne was reaching for their own jar. A moment later R'dek could feel Rodne's hands on him and in him, one set of fingers caressing his cock and balls, and the other spreading slickness around his opening and then dipping in. R'dek began to pant loudly as the first finger breached him, adding voice to his breaths when the first was joined by another, and they plumbed him more deeply still.

These sensations were certainly more than enough to occupy R'dek's awareness, but Caresn's sudden cry from across the hut, "Gods above, Loren!" did not escape his notice. Loren's answering chuckle was muffled in an unmistakable manner, and R'dek could not help thinking, _Gods... gods... he's got Caresn's cock in his mouth, and he probably has his fingers in Caresn's ass..._.

The rhythm of Rodne's three fingers working him open stumbled for a moment as R'dek heard Rodne mutter, "Oh fuck..." and R'dek knew that his lover had had the same thought. The ideas and images all instigated a surge of almost unbearable heat and desire in R'dek and then he was pulling off Rodne's fingers gasping, "Now, now, Rodne; I am ready now," and he didn't give a damn who heard him.

Rodne was muttering, "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..." softly and yet desperately to himself as R'dek saw him reach for the goose fat again to slick himself up. Then Rodne was panting, "Okay, okay..." holding his cock and guiding it as R'dek lowered himself, feeling the head press against his opening, feeling that moment of resistance, then that heartbeat of sweet terror as he gave way, surrendering to Rodne's flesh.

Slowly, slowly, R'dek lowered himself, panting harshly as he gradually let the muscles in his hips and thighs relax, surrendering to gravity as well as Rodne's hard length slipped ever deeper inside him. Below him, Rodne was moaning, "Gods, oh gods, R'dek..." and across the room R'dek could hear Caresn's voice, begging brokenly.

 _They know,_ R'dek thought with a dangerous sort of thrill. _They have to know,_ and he wondered if Rodne had figured it out. R'dek let his eyes drift closed for a moment as he finally relaxed fully, Rodne's cock as deeply inside him as he could take it. He would move in a moment, but this simple feeling of fullness was such bliss. "Thank you Caresn," he found himself saying, light headed with euphoria. "This..." and then he gasped as Rodne moved a little inside him, "this was very good idea."

"Wha...?" Caresn said, obviously rendered somewhat less than coherent by something Loren was doing. Loren knew exactly what R'dek had meant, however.

"He's riding Rodne," Loren whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear. "He's got Rodne's cock deep inside him, and he's going to ride him good, just like I like to do with you."

"R'dek, you perverted bastard!" Rodne cried, helplessly thrusting up into R'dek, and R'dek could tell that his lover was more aroused than he was disturbed by this new development. He laughed, feeling his body clench and move around Rodne's cock with his laughter, and Rodne gave a strangled cry and thrust again.

On the other side of the room R'dek could hear Caresn begging again, and Loren answered him, his voice low and heated. "Tell us what you want, lover," he said. "Tell it so we can all hear."

Caresn gave a sort of sobbing whimper, managing to choke out, "You, master hunter, are an evil, evil man..." He interrupted himself with a sudden gasp and Radek could hear the wet sound of Loren pulling off Caresn's cock.

"Nothing you didn't know before, healer," he said, his voice rough but implacable. "Now... tell us what you want."

"You, ye bloody...!" Caresn gave a strangled sob as Loren did something to him again -probably sucking Caresn's cock back into his mouth, R'dek thought, hearing the contented humming sound Loren made now.

"It's you I want, ye... ye... oh Gods!" Caresn forged ahead desperately. "Inside me... takin' me... wi' yer cock... filling me..."

Even in the dim light R'dek could see Rodne's eyes, so wide with astonished desire they were nearly luminescent. "Fuck..." he whispered brokenly. "Fuck... R'dek, you have to move... Gods!"

Caresn's words had all but held R'dek transfixed, but now, feeling Rodne struggling to thrust beneath him, he realized his own imperative to move, to push himself up, off Rodne's cock and then down again, impaling himself as deeply as he could. Rodne quickly caught his rhythm, moving his own hips in counterpoint so that he thrust up into R'dek's body as R'dek pushed down.

This rhythm of thrusting, driving, being filled again and again, soon overwhelmed everything in R'dek's awareness. Perhaps he was faintly aware of the sounds changing on the other side of the space they shared, and of another rhythm of harsh, panting gasps and moans coming to intrude occasionally on his and Rodne's own rhythm, but when when that rhythm suddenly came to include Rodne's slick fingers, wrapped around his cock, everything else faded into inconsequence.

R'dek's awareness had narrowed into something that could fit between a heartbeat, consisting only of pleasure and need and an ever nearing completion. The sense of something building in him grew until it broke, and he broke, crying out loudly in ecstasy, his whole body spasming, seizing the hard flesh intruding into him as he climaxed. Warm spatters of his spending fell on R'dek's thighs, and onto Rodne's chest, and his lover cried out in response, the pitch of his voice climbing as he thrust twice more into R'dek's body before breaking himself.

R'dek felt Rodne arch beneath him, felt the hot pulsing of Rodne's release within him, then felt him fall spent, loose limbed in completion. R'dek was falling himself now, slowly collapsing forward to find Rodne's lips with his own, framing his lover's face with his hands. As the thudding of his heart began to lessen, R'dek could hear the rhythmic pants and cries on the other side of the room build to a climax of their own, Caresn's voice calling out Loren's name and then shouting with pleasure.

R'dek and Rodne tasted each other with sated leisure, listening with satisfaction to the joyful sounds from nearby. Loren gave a long, low groan next, and a few moments later only the sounds of heavy breathing and soft kisses could be heard in the hut. R'dek was feeling pleasantly drowsy now, and let himself slide off to Rodney's side, feeling Rodne's cock slip from within him as he did. Rodne gave a contented little grunt, nuzzling at R'dek's throat, then said softly, "That... that was okay."

The words carried in the quiet of the hut, and Caresn answered him.  "Aye, it was," the healer said, and Rodne only huffed a little laugh in answer. From outside, R'dek could feel a gust of wind shake the hut, heard the spatter of wind blown rain strike the roofs and walls, and took comfort in the knowledge that it was more that roofs and walls that enclosed and protected him tonight. Warm and comfortable and loved, R'dek bent to kiss his lover's forehead, and let himself drift.

***


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last day in Lakeside.

Rodne woke to the sound of rain on the roof, and voices speaking softly nearby. He was warm, wonderfully comfortable, and he had a pleasantly warm and slightly heavy R'dek curled into his side, his head resting on his shoulder. This was Rodne's favorite way to wake up, enjoying the sound of the rain even if it did mean that there would be no stargazing that night. It was only when he identified the voices, and remembered everything about the night before, that he felt a little blush of embarrassment.

"I really don't mind going to get breakfast, love," Caresn was saying when Rodne finally woke enough to track what was being said.

"Every morning?" Loren asked, his tone a mixture of sorrow and frustration. "Because this is never going to get better, and there are some things I'm never going to be able to carry one handed."

"Ye'll find other ways to make up for it love," Caresn replied. "Just because ye don't know what they are yet doesn't mean it won't happen."

Now Rodne was wide awake, and he could feel R'dek waking beside him, uncurling and yawning loudly enough to attract Loren and Caresn's attention.

"Actually," Rodne said when both of them looked their way, "we may have something for that."

 

Aberam was just finishing up when the four of them appeared at his hut after breakfast that morning. He stepped out into the chilly drizzle to greet them, holding the finished masterpiece of leatherwork in his hands. "Who gets it first?" he asked. "The designer or the wearer?"

"May I have a look at it?" R'dek asked. "I am quite certain you have done it perfectly, I am only curious to see how my designs have been realized."

" _Our_ designs, you mean," Rodne preempted as Aberam passed the boot over to R'dek. Rodne crowded close to get a good look himself, standing shoulder to shoulder with R'dek as he turned the completed boot over slowly in his hands. The bracing and cross bracing they'd specified had all been carried out perfectly, the carefully carved yew struts sewn into sturdily crafted leather sleeves, and the heavy buffalo hide he'd used for main parts of the boot was all but flawless. "Not bad," Rodne offered.

"I made a mate, in the more conventional manner," Aberam said, offering a second boot to Loren, "so you'd have something like a matched set."

"Wow," Loren said, looking a little overwhelmed. "That's, um... that's some serious boot."

"Well, I do like to make my work to last," Aberam said as R'dek passed the special boot up to Loren.

"This..." R'dek began, "well, I have never designed anything like it, so I cannot make any guarantees, but it was my hope, our hope, that you might be able to walk, while wearing this boot, without the assistance of a crutch."

"Damn," said Loren, handing the first boot over to Caresn in order to closely examine the second. "I guess if anything would work for that, this would." He took in the various straps and supports, his expression tentatively hopeful. "Guess there's nothing to do but try it, eh?"

Loren seated himself on one of the big stumps in front of Aberam's hut that he sometimes used for a work table, and put on the right boot first, flexing it experimentally once it was on. "It's a good fit," Loren said approvingly.

"Well, I've made boots for you before, Master Hunter," Aberam said with a pleased smile.

"I suppose you have," Loren said, looking down a little uncertainly as Caresn unwrapped the bandages and supports around Loren's left foot. Together he and R'dek eased the injured foot into the new boot, and then Loren listened attentively as R'dek showed him the various fastenings and how to adjust them. Rodne stood back to let them do this, knowing R'dek to be much better -which is to say, much more patient- with explaining things to people. Also, the designs had mostly been his.

"Well alright," Loren said once all the adjustments had been made to everyone's satisfaction. "Let's, ah, give this a try." He drew a deep breath then, steadying himself on Caresn's and R'dek's shoulders, and pushed himself up off the stump. He stood for a moment, getting his balance, then let go of his two supporters, drawing another, more relieved breath when he found himself able to balance easily.

"So far, so good," he said, shrugging his shoulders to relax himself further. R'dek stepped over to Rodne's side now and Rodne could feel his nervous tension, fingers clutching at one another as they waited for Loren to hazard his first step. Careson bit his lip anxiously as well.

"Take all the time you need, love," he tried to reassure Loren. "There's no rush."

"No point to waiting, either," Loren replied, then carefully lifted his left foot, moving it forward a half a pace and setting it down. He let his weight rest on it for a heartbeat, then took another quick stride forward with his good foot. No one said a word as the five of them exchanged hopeful glances, then Loren took another handful of halting steps. His gait was uneven, of course, but when Loren looked back at all of them, gazing over the distance he'd crossed without the assistance of a crutch, he was beaming.

"Damn..." he said, all but speechless in astonishment. "It really works... I can walk... I can actually fucking walk again!" He limped the handful of steps back to Caresn then, growing more confident with every step, and wrapped the man in an ecstatic embrace. Rodne could not help but grin himself at Caresn's joyful laugh, or the surprised yelp that R'dek gave when Loren crossed to him and enveloped the toolmaker in another crushing hug.

Loren even had a hug for Rodne, acknowledging his hand in the design of his supportive boot. "I take back every time I might have implied that you weren't a complete genius," he said as Rodne blushed and spluttered a reply.

"I owe you... all of you, more than I can ever repay," Loren continued, returning to Caresn's side as he regarded his circle of friends. "I knew this injury would change my life, and nothing could change it back, but you... you have changed it again, into a life I know I can live with dignity and there's... there's just no words for what that means to me."

Aberam shrugged. "Well, I've been paid well for my time and materials," he said with a smile. "And it's been my pleasure all the same. You don't owe me a thing, Master Hunter."

"You have my thanks, at least, Aberam," Loren replied to the leather worker, "but you guys," he gestured toward Rodne and R'dek, "I can't begin..." Rodne cut him off with a dismissive gesture.

"And do you think you should be owed anything for saving Shef'hred's life yesterday?" Rodne asked, "not to mention standing up for me the way you did." The drizzle was starting soak into his clothes and he shivered, stepping closer to R'dek for warmth.

"You're... you're a good man, Loren, and... and a good friend," Rodne continued, almost surprised at his own words, though they were undoubtedly true. "R'dek and I... we saw a way to make things better and so we did. It's what we do."

"I'm starting to get that," Loren said as Caresn wrapped an arm around his waist to pull him close. "And if nothing else, I'll do what I can to see that other people here understand that too."

The two of them decided to pay a visit to Li'bet and Shef'hred after that, and so bid farewell to Rodne and R'dek for now. Rodne crossed his arms over his chest as he watched them go, grinning with satisfaction. "So," he said, turning to R'dek. "I believe our work here is done."

"I believe you are correct," R'dek replied, every bit as satisfied. "We should have no difficulty packing up the rest of our things so that we may be ready to leave tomorrow morning, first thing."

Of course, they hadn't come with much, Rodne reflected, but they'd managed to acquire quite a bit in the time they'd spent in Lakeside. R'dek had his new rabbit fur blanket, and over the last few days Rodne himself had been very mindful of the coming winter. To that end he'd made a number of trades for food and other supplies that he'd be able to collect today. He and R'dek would be carrying heavily laden packs on their journey home, but they were both fit enough for it, and they'd be happy for every last crumb they carried with them, in the long, cold months to come.

It seemed that word of their impending departure had gotten around Lakeside and people started dropping by with the goods they owed Rodne and R'dek at about the time that the two men got back to Caresn's hut. Meera came with a basket full of dried fish and a promise of firewood that Yinte would deliver sometime before the next full moon, and Sitakahus came with Marak'm and a basket full of random trade goods he'd acquired in his last trip. R'dek spent most of their mid day meal with the two men, settling accounts between them and planning their next voyage.

Rodne, for his part, spent his afternoon repast with Dirneer and N'lara, with whom he'd done a lengthy consultation about auspicious times to start a family. He left this meeting with two large bags of dried fruits and vegetables, and two big blocks of smoked goat cheese, and feeling very pleased with life indeed. He felt even more pleased when Kadam dropped by, bearing a bag of dried forest mushrooms and, seeing as R'dek had stepped away to take down the hides they'd used as a shelter, samples of some of the pelts she'd just cured, that were to go into R'dek's midwinters gift.

The drizzle had let up by the time their respective mid day meals were done, and after Kadam had gone, Rodne went to join R'dek in taking down their shelter and returning the mostly dry hides to Aberam. They found Li'bet there, along with Teleya and Fenilly, who asked Rodne and R'dek if they couldn't travel with them a little ways tomorrow morning.

"R'non and I have decided to make our home in Lakeside," Teleya said with a smile, "for as long as Lakeside remains the place where the tide of the Raiders may be turned back. You may recall, however, that I pledged myself to aid the women of Twin Groves when I first heard the tale of their sorrows, and so I am going to travel back with Fenilly, and do what I can there for a moon or two."

"Where, if I may ask," R'dek began curiously, "will you be staying once you return to Lakeside?" It was a reasonable question, Rodne reflected, seeing as winter was coming and there was no housing for unattached women in the village.

"I do not mind your asking, Toolmaker," Teleya answered agreeably, "and it is with Kadam that I will be staying. She and I have become good friends since I came here, and I believe R'non is planning on staying in the bachelor's lodge for the winter. It is my thought, however, that he has not failed to notice Kimma's attentions, nor are they unwelcome, so it may be that R'non will soon be starting a household of his own here."

"Oh, that would be wonderful," Li'bet said with a wide smile. "And I am more than pleased to have you become part of our village. In fact, I would like to invite all of you to join me for dinner tonight, in my hut, to welcome our new Lakesiders, and to say farewell to our most treasured guests."

That, of course, really was a no-brainer, and Rodne and R'dek both accepted enthusiastically. It was only a little while later, when they had gone back to their campsite beneath the wingseed tree to do a last clean up, that they learned what was to be the main course. 

Rodne supposed that the residents of Lakeside would soon become used to the sound of horses coming into the village, but to him it still seemed an odd sound, and a little startling. He and R'dek both looked up sharply, therefore, at the sound of approaching hoofbeats, but were pleasantly surprised to see Shef'hred and -more surprising still- Loren, mounted respectively on Jumper, and a sandy brown mare with one white foot, introduced to them as 'One Sock'. Serendipitously, the mare's odd colored foot was on the left as well, making her a perfect match for Loren.

The hunter was also carrying his new longbow, and grinned ecstatically as he held up the brace of waterfowl he'd obviously just used it to acquire.

"Well done, Master Hunter," R'dek said, his own grin matching Loren's. "I am most pleased to see my work put to its proper purpose at last, and that you are clearly mastering it."

"It might be more accurate to say that this bow has mastered me," Loren said with a laugh. "It all but entices the game to fall in to my open hands."

"Don't let him fool you," Shef'hred said, seeming just as pleased. "He handles that thing like a pro, _and_ he handles old One Sock there like he was born in the saddle. You sure he doesn't have some raider blood in him?"

"You impugning the virtue of my foremothers?" Loren asked archly, looking as though he might threaten Shef'hred with a dead goose.

"No, no," Shef'hred back-peddled instantly, holding both his hands up in surrender. "Absolutely not. Never entered my mind."

"Well, good," Loren said, "because you might take a little credit at least for finding me the most obliging horse ever born."

Shef'hred laughed at that. "Well I wasn't going to put you on Spark," he said, "but 'obliging' just isn't the word I'd use for any of these beasts."

"No, you know who should get Spark," Rodne said, struck suddenly by an odd idea, and thinking of the stallion's unique color. "Kadam, that's who. Her hair is almost the same color... and she won't put up with any kind of nonsense from him."

"You know, he may have a point," Loren concurred. "I think the temperament and the hair color may go together."

Rodne grimaced at Loren, then stepped close to Shef'hred's mount, cupping one hand by his mouth to whisper loudly up to him. "He says that now," Rodne remarked conspiratorially, "but if you ever let Kadam hear you say that she will have little bits of you for bait in her traps."

"Thanks for the heads up," Shef'hred said with a laugh. "And now if we want these birds cooked in time for our dinner, we need to take 'em over to Li'bet, yes?"

Loren agreed, and the two of them urged their mounts forward, making their way through the village to the headwoman's hut. Rodne watched them go, thinking how much things were changing, mainly for the better, right before his eyes. R'dek's smile, as he watched along side him, said much the same thing.

"We have come to live in remarkable times, my friend," he said. "Very wonderful, remarkable times."

Rodne could not agree more.

 

Dinner was just as fine as anyone could have wish, both in the quality and quantity of food, and the very fine quality of the company. It was crowded in Li'bet's hut with R'dek and Rodne, Li'bet and Shef'hred, R'non and Teleya, Loren and Caresn and Fenilly, but there was room enough and the sheer number of bodies kept the place quite warm, in spite of the autumnal chill outside.

The birds were roasted to perfection, cooked with wild onions and garlic and stuffed with rice and dried fruit. There were fresh greens and cooked ones as well as herbed bread and roasted apples for dessert and everyone ate their fill. After the meal there was tea and a little of R'dek's lighting water (and tea with lightning water in it, which immediately became Rodne's favorite way to enjoy the potent beverage) and more pleasant conversation, which Rodne enjoyed as much as the meal.

Still, when he reflected that he was soon to be leaving all this behind, Rodne found himself not so much dreading the loss of it, as storing it all up in his mind, to provide comfort and sustenance in the long winter to come, along with the smoked goat cheese and the dried fruit he would be carrying with him tomorrow morning. The memories of this pleasant evening would certainly weigh a great deal less, but would provide their own quality of nourishment, and would keep the loneliness at bay until midwinters, when they would come together again.

Loneliness, of course, had never trouble Rodne much in the past, as he had always cherished his solitude, and had never recognized his own loneliness until R'dek had come into his life. He had never thought to know the pleasures of friends or family either, until recently, but the events of the last few moons had brought those things to Rodne, much to his astonishment. 

Those events had changed not only Rodne's life, of course, but those of everyone in Lakeside as well. The whole world, as they knew it, would seem to have changed, but now, as Li'bet's guests began to feel the lateness of the hour and prepared to depart, Rodne had the satisfaction of knowing that those things which lay at his core had not changed. 

The night stars, though they shone in a cold, dark sky, countless leagues distant, still greeted him as friends when he stepped outside. Though the light shining from Li'bet's doorway beckoned warmly, it was not regret that Rodne felt as he stepped away, but longing for a place too distance for his eyes to reach, where the lights were fewer, and the voices those of night insects and other wild things only. Of course, there was one other voice he was altogether pleased to hear among those wild ones in his mountain solitude, and Rodne wrapped his arm affectionately around the slight form of the owner of that voice, pulling him close to keep him from the cold.

"Ready to go home, lover?" he asked, seeing R'dek's eyes drawn to the same distant spot as his had been.

"That I am, beloved," R'dek said softly, tilting his head to meet Rodne's lips briefly with his own. It was just then that more light spilled forth from Li'bet's door as Caresn and Loren bundled out into the chill night air.

"Pleasant night to you all," Li'bet said as they turned to depart, their breaths clouding around them, "and I will see you all in the morning." Rodne thought he might have been imagining the sudden haunted look in Caresn's eyes at Li'bet's last words, but Loren seemed to have seen it too, for he lifted a hand to the healer's arm and turned him to meet his eyes.

"What is it?" he asked, intent. "Those... it is the same words I spoke which wounded you before, is it not?"

Caresn shook himself, then pulled Loren close and began walking back toward his hut. "It is and it isn't," he said, "but it's a tale I've promised you some time back, and not such a long one. Let's head home and when we've settle for bed I'll share the whole of it."

****


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One last tale, and the journey home.

"It's not so much that I've meant to keep it a secret," Caresn began when they had all finally settled into their respective beds. "It's just that there's not so much to tell and actually, no one's ever asked before, how I came to Lakeside."

"Well," Rodne said, snuggled warmly with R'dek under the furs, "you've always said that Turtur sent you and honestly, that's kind of a conversation killer."

Beside him, Rodne heard R'dek give a snort of laughter, and Rodne felt the warmth of his breath fall on his shoulder -a contrast to the chill air in the hut. They'd built up the fire when they'd come in, but it was dying back now as they prepared to sleep, creating more shadows than light -the largest of these being Rodne and R'dek's bulging packs, standing ready by the door for the morrow's journey.

"Aye, you might be right about that," Caresn replied. "But it's true nonetheless, after a fashion. Ye see, the village I grew up in sat at the base of a mountain, above a small river. We raised sheep and cows and tried to avoid getting caught up in the feuds that other villages nearby got involved in, and I never thought there'd be much more to my life that lookin' after my flock." In the shadowy quiet, Rodne saw a movement that might have been the shaking of a head, and a sound that might have been Loren drawing his lover a little closer.

"So it was one spring, my ninth, I think," the healer continued, "that I began to dream of Turtur. He didn't speak at first, but... I knew things, when I dreamed of him. I knew that when I touched him I could fly... and those were wonderful dreams." Caresn's sigh seemed one of fond remembrance, though there also seemed a dark portent. Rodne leaned his head to rest against R'dek's, feeling his lover do the same.

"Sometimes we flew where I wished to go," Caresn continued, "and sometimes we went where Turtur wanted to go. One night he took me up over our village, and then further up the mountainside... and then he took me _in_ to the mountain and showed me something terrible. 

"It had been a terribly rainy spring, but our village was up on a cliff over the river, so we had no worries about floods. We never thought to look for danger from above, but what Turtur showed me that night... He showed me that the soil above our village was so heavy with rainwater... the roots and rocks that held it in place weren't going to be strong enough... Then, when we flew back up, above my village, and Turtur showed me just how the mountain was going to come down on it." The breath that Caresn drew now was a little unsteady, and Rodne wondered if Caresn had ever told this tale to anyone before.

"It was still raining when I woke from my dream that morning," he went on after a moment. "And I knew I was going to carry on all that day. I _knew_ that what Turtur had shown me was true, and that everyone had to leave the village right away if they were to live, so I ran to tell them..." When Caresn trailed off Rodne knew suddenly, and horribly what had happened -or rather what hadn't happened- next.

"Not a soul believed me." Caresn said with a heartbreaking sigh. "The very idea of the mountainside coming down... well it seemed absurd. No one could imagine it, and I was just a boy. By the end of the day I was terrified and desperate. I couldn't get anyone to come, couldn't make myself stay, but I went one last time to me mum and dad's, to try and convince them. I begged and begged... but I'd five brothers and sisters, and they couldn't just up and go with all of them, not so late as it was then, and they wouldn't leave them behind. They said I was free to go if I wished -I was oldest, and I'd been away from home for the night before- but I'd soon see that it was all foolishness. It was the last words me mum said to me..."

"Oh, gods..." Rodne heard Loren choke out, and he too remembered the words Loren had spoken so long ago, that had made Caresn grow so pale, _You'll see... when morning comes, everything will be fine. Really._

"Caresn I never..." Loren murmured, sounding shattered. "Gods I'm sorry. I accused you of jinxing us... but I cursed us far worse."

"No, no, no, love," Caresn comforted. "Ye had no way of knowing, and I knew it even then. I just... it came at a bad moment."

"I should've trusted you," Loren countered, sorrowful. "And it's a mistake I won't make again, I swear."

"I know that love, I do," Caresn assured him. "Ye musn't ever doubt that." A calming silence fell over the space after that, until Rodne felt R'dek shift awkwardly against him.

"Forgive me," he said hesitantly, "but I am not sure if I am not missing something..."

"Aye, of course," Caresn said. "The two of you won't have any idea what we're talking about."

"Actually," Rodne said sheepishly, "I kinda heard..."

"Yeah, I doubt you're the only one," Loren grimaced, "and that's no one's fault but ours."

"True enough," Caresn said, "but I don't mind explaining it to you, R'dek. And truly, the tale's not quite finished yet. What my mother said to me as I was departing was, 'don't you worry, we'll see you in the morning and everything will be fine.' It wasn't, of course. That night I went well up river, to a place where Turtur told me I'd be safe, and when I came back the next day... it was as if there never was a village there." 

Caresn sighed and fell silent for a moment, and Rodne took the moment to explain to R'dek the nature of Loren's accidental faux pas. R'dek shook his head and swore quietly as he came to understand.

"And what Li'bet said this evening, it was close as well?" R'dek asked.

"Not so very much, truly," Caresn answered, "but those words were in my mind, from our argument, and because I had promised to tell the tale, but hadn't yet. Now that the tale is told, I've reason to hope that they'll leave me in peace."

"Surely they will," Rodne heard Loren say softly, sealing his promise with a kiss.

"At any rate," Caresn concluded a moment later, "I let Turtur guide me from then on, from one village to the next. As I traveled, he showed me some of the healing herbs and ways of healing, and he sent me to meet others who taught me as well. In all my travelling, though, he always promised me that the day would come that I'd find a village that would be a new home to me, and where I'd find friends and family to fill the terrible empty place in my heart from when I'd lost my old village and family."

"And when you finally came to the village with the cranky, sick old basket maker, and the even crankier slightly crazy man caring for her," Rodne said with a smile, "did you tell him he was nuts?" Caresn's responding laugh was good to hear, Rodne thought.

"I've always trusted Turtur, even when he told me things I found hard to believe," Caresn said. "I knew it would take a bit of time to find my place in Lakeside, but you, Rodne, I could tell you were special from the start."

Rodne felt a blush heat his face, and heard a gentle chuckle from R'dek, beside him. "He makes a strong impression when you meet him for the first time, that is certain," the toolmaker said.

"You definitely said a mouthful there," he heard Loren agree from the far side of the hut, and Rodne decided it was time to put a stop to this new, uncomfortable turn in the conversation.

"Okay, story time's over," he interrupted, "and we have an early morning tomorrow, yes? Sleep time now."

"Once again, we must all bow before superior intellect," R'dek smirked, even as Rodne smacked him on the head with one of the furs while he settled himself down in the bed.

"Aye, well, good advice is good advice," Caresn acquiesced reasonably. "There's no use arguing with it."

"Especially if you don't want your head bitten off," Loren quipped amid the sound of rustling furs from his side of the hut.

Rodne had to struggle, briefly, between to impulse to make a retort and following his own advice, but the irrefutability of his advice won out, and moments later, he was sound asleep.

***

The morning did dawn clear, if chilly, but Rodne and R'dek were prepared with the proper garb, and were both eager to begin their journey. Trinka personally presented them with two hearty egg and cheese breads for the journey, as well as a stack of fresh flatbreads that might keep for a few days, and Rodne thanked her most sincerely. Her expressions of adoration might make him uncomfortable, but her support of him had never wavered during his recent difficult times, and he was grateful for it.

Teleya and Fenilly were ready by the south entrance when Rodne and R'dek arrived, and Rodne was surprised to see Shef'hred there as well. He was holding out a small, cloth wrapped bundle to the woman from Twin Groves, his eyes on the ground as he offered it. Curious, Rodne stepped close enough to see what it was without intruding on their conversation.

"It's just some rings and hair ornaments," he was saying as Fenilly opened the bundle. "I gave all my, ah, stuff to the people here, but they decided that some of it should go to you -to your village."

"These are gold!" Fenilly exclaimed, holding up one of the rings in shock.

"Just a couple are gold," Shef'hred confirmed, hand reaching around to scratch at the back of his neck uncomfortably. "The rest are copper or bronze. I don't know what good they'll do you for now, but when any traders come in the spring, you could maybe get some good stuff for them." Shef'hred glanced up to meet her gaze for a moment then, but could not hold it.

"I, ah... I guess saying I'm sorry at this point is pretty useless," he want on awkwardly, "but... but I am. What happened to you... to your village... it shouldn't have happened, and I shouldn't have had any part in it... but I did, and so if there's anything I can do to help put things right again... just let me know."

Fenilly closed up the bundle and slipped it into her shirt front, then looked up to meet Shef'hred's gaze with a directness that Rodne could not help but admire. She held his gaze for a long time before she spoke. "My son and my man were still alive when you left Twin Groves," was all she said, turning away after a moment. Shef'hred said nothing at all, but Li'bet was at his side soon enough, admiration and approval shining in her eyes to challenge the self-loathing in his as she gathered him into his arms.

Rodne hummed thoughtfully to himself as he returned to R'dek's side. The toolmaker had crafted them each a stout walking stick -necessary when carrying such heavily laden packs, and was chatting with Kadam, who had come to see them off, along with Li'bet, Shef'hred, Caresn and Loren, and a fair handful of others. It was a little surprising to Rodne, though he supposed by now it oughtn't be.

In his previous time as a resident of Lakeside, Rodne had striven to keep to himself, not really wanting to become a part of village life, and he had succeeded, to some degree. What with one thing and another, however, his recent stay had drawn him inextricably into the fabric of Lakeside, and now he found himself unable to regret it. He'd learned, to his surprise, that allowing himself to become part of the village did not mean changing who he was -not even his cross-grained, solitary nature. Just as R'dek could love him in spite of this, it seemed that Lakeside could accept him too.

It was an odd thing to try and wrap his head around, but Rodne had a long journey ahead of him with which to contemplate this. It was a journey he found himself more than eager to start as he and Radek disentangled themselves from the last fond hugs and handshakes. Setting out at last, Rodne felt his heart lift, so that even his heavily laden pack felt light.

Glancing to his left, Rodne saw that R'dek too stepped lightly, with a deeply contented smile on his face. The light breeze blew his untamable hair every which way, and carried the sound of Teleya and Fenilly chatting pleasantly behind them. For his part, Rodney was content to walk in silence, and R'dek seemed to feel the same as he kept pace at Rodne's shoulder.

After a while the two women took to singing, tentatively harmonizing with each other on songs they both knew, but knew slightly different versions of. R'dek, who loved music, smiled with joy as their voices lifted behind them, even when their music stumbled and the harmonies dissolved into laughter. Rodne kept his enjoyment to himself, though he had a feeling that R'dek was not fooled.

They arrived at Twin Groves around mid day, and though it had been nearly a moon since the Raiders' attack, the village was still largely in ruins, half burnt huts standing here and there, with a sense of despair and apathy hanging over the whole place. Rodne exchanged somber looks with R'dek, thinking that without a great deal of effort, many of the remaining survivors -women and elders all- would not last the winter.

Their arrival was greeted neither with joy nor hostility, but with suspicion and scepticism, and Rodne saw now that Fenilly's decision to travel to Lakeside for the singing contest had been regarded dubiously at best. Teleya they remembered as being the person who had warned them of the coming dangers, and whose warning they had dismissed out of hand. Few would meet her eyes now.

Teleya had a way with people, however, and she and Fenilly had brought their own heavily laden packs with food and other supplies which were gifts from the villagers of Lakeside. Slowly and patiently, she and Fenilly had drawn the survivors of Twin Groves out of their huts to join them in an impromptu feast -to which Rodne and R'dek ended up contributing one of their egg and cheese breads- and had them listening, and agreeing, to Teleya's plans for securing the village for winter.

Folk were already headed off in small groups to begin work on various tasks by the time lunch was done and Rodne and R'dek had their packs on again, ready to recommence their journey. Teleya left Fenilly overseeing things to see them off with a heartfelt hug.

"I hope to see you both at Midwinters?" she said drew back from having nearly crushed R'dek

"Probably," Rodne said, diffidently in order to cover for his own ruffled dignity. "I, ah... I usually tell stories then, too."

"Then I shall look forward to this very much indeed," Teleya said with disarming sincerity. "May I tell those from Twin Groves that they may be welcomed to this festival as well?"

"To Midwinters?" Rodne replied. "Oh, sure. We've always, that is to say, Lakeside has always welcomed, um, our neighbors, whenever there's a festival. I guess not too many people from Twin Groves have come in the past..." Probably because they had a festival of their own, except that this year they might not have even the little bit of excess needed to have any kind of celebration. "...But, you know, they've always been welcome," he finished, realizing that Teleya had probably been thinking just that when she'd asked him her question.

"That is good to hear, Rodne," Teleya answered, "and it will be my pleasure to make this known to the people of Twin Groves. But you are eager to be on your way, I can see." Her smile was fond as she placed her hand on Rodne's shoulder one last time before stepping away.

"Pleasant journey to both of you," she called as Rodne turned to stand at the head of the path with R'dek. "And fare well, until we see you again."

Rodne and R'del both waved in reply, glancing back over their shoulders only briefly as they strode away. Teleya was a unique and remarkable person, if just a touch intimidating, Rodne mused to himself, and he supposed he was glad she seemed to think of him as a friend. He supposed he thought of her as a friend as well, and that contributed to an odd stretchy feeling in the part of his thoughts he reserved for those he called friends.

He'd never needed that part at all until he'd come to Lakeside, and even after that he'd never had more than a single handful of people there, but now he had to expand it to make room for more than a dozen people, it seemed. It was all relative, though, for near that part, there was another, even larger part which had only ever encompassed one person, and it got bigger all the time. Rodne reached out to take R'dek's hand now as they walked, and his lover took it with a squeeze, glancing over to meet Rodne's gaze with a look of such affection it almost made Rodne weak in the knees.

Naturally, Rodne was looking forward to being able to have sex with R'dek whenever and wherever they happened to be, which was one of the solid benefits of their solitary lifestyle, but that wasn't what he had missed the most, Rodne realized. What he was really looking forward to now was having R'dek all to himself, with no one else to share his time or his mind or even his quiet, solitary labors. Now, at last, his lover's quick, quirking smile, the sparkle of his pale blue eyes, his low, secretive chuckle, were Rodne's alone, and Rodne felt a simple, selfish joy at the knowledge.

It was quite possible that R'dek felt the same way, for his expression was one of pleasant contemplation as he walked along side Rodne. It was almost a relief not to have to talk, or even to hear words. Some part of Rodne remained the creature of utter isolation he had been for so many years, and one of R'dek's most precious qualities was that he understood that.

What Rodne understood about R'dek was that there remained, for him, a special joy in journeying, a habit that he had given up at the same time that Rodne had given up his solitude. There was the real beauty of what they had found in each other, Rodne mused, for both had given up the thing they had thought they cherished the most about their old lives when they had come together, and then both had discovered that they had sacrificed nothing. Rodne found his solitude even more pleasant when shared with R'dek, and R'dek was more than pleased to share his journeys with Rodne, and took all the more joy in it.

It was this quiet joy that Rodne delighted in seeing in his lover's eyes as the two of them climbed the winding path into the foothills. The open plains and grasslands fell behind them as the afternoon wore on, and soon they were making their way through sunny forests of snow-bark and wingseed trees. The cold had touched the leaves of many of these trees, so that the drifts of firey orange and sunny yellow could be seen among the green, and flocks of birds of all sorts flocked and fluttered through them, foraging for the food they would need to sustain them in the winter to come.

Many would depart, Rodne knew from long experience, to spend their winters elsewhere, presumably where the food was more abundant, while others would find safe haven and shelter here, as would Rodne himself. These birds and other forest creatures felt an urge, at this time of year, that Rodne was no stranger to, in spite of his clearly superior intelligence. This urge drove him homeward as much as any other motive, and Rodne thought that maybe R'dek felt it too as they approached their usual mid-journey bivouac.

The lean-to shelter Rodne had built many summers ago and the pile of firewood he always kept there awaited them, just as expected, though mice had had their way with much of the bedding they had abandoned there in Rodne's desperate flight to Lakeside with R'dek. Some of it was salvageable, however, and they were glad of it, for the night was far colder here in the foothills than it had been down in the valley.

Rodne was glad, too, to share his warmth, curled close to his lover under the furs, as content as any forest creature in his shared solitude. They rose together in the morning, with the welcoming warmth of the rising sun falling on their faces, and prepared for the day's journey with subdued but joyful anticipation.

"You know," Rodne reflected as he settled his pack and took up his walking stick, "Spitt is going to be impossible for the first few days we're back."

"Do you think she will be angry with us for leaving her alone so long?" R'dek speculated, starting up the trail.

"Are you kidding?" Rodne replied. "She'll think we've left the place to her, and she's going to be pissed as hell when she finds out she's going to have to share it again."

"Indeed, I believe you have the right of it," R'dek laughed. "But I look forward to seeing her just the same, for I have missed her as well."

"Yeah, me too," Rodne admitted.

They came to chat a little, as they drew closer to familiar haunts, of what would be needed, tasks and chores to be completed before full winter was upon them. In truth, there was a lot to be done, and they would be getting a later start than most years, but Rodne didn't really mind so much. After three winters together they both knew the routines well, and for Rodne, the memory of having to accomplish all these things alone was still relatively fresh.

It was late afternoon, as they were drawing close to their destination, that it dawned on Rodne that he had never been away for so long before, and the strength of the longing and joy in his heart surprised him. He reached out to catch at R'dek's hand and found the tool maker reaching for him as well, a joyful light shining from his eyes.

"You feel it too?" Rodne asked. "How... how good it is to be back?"

"Of course," R'dek answered. "You are surprised to see this?"

Rodne shrugged and looked away. "It's been my home for years -more than a double handful of them, but you..."

"I never had any home, not since I was a boy," R'dek finished for him. "That is true, and it is true as well that I never thought I would want such a thing. But I have been here more than three summers, and now..." Now they came round a copse of trees and there it was, the rocky hillside, the little clearing with the firepit, and the narrow opening into the hillside closed with a large ox hide.

"Now," R'dek said as they paused to take in the sight, "I feel it. This home has a place in my heart, just as you do, and it was you who showed me just how precious a home can be."

Rodne's only reply could be a kiss, warm and heartfelt, and then the two of them walked hand in hand up to the only true home either of them had ever known.

***


	35. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spitt welcomes Rodne and R'dek home.

Spitt had indeed left them a number of 'welcome home' gifts in the cave, and none of them were particularly nice. Rodne commented with gratitude that mice had not had their way with his door flap, but that was the last grateful word he spoke for some time. Entering, they quickly learned to step carefully, as there was a generous littering of dead rodent... parts in the vestibule, among other things that did not bare stepping in or on. Rodne expressed his displeasure loudly and at length.

R'dek could not prevent himself from laughing at Rodne's loudest exclamation of disgust, which came when Rodne went to examine their bedding. "Oh my gods, she had kittens!" he cried, and it took R'dek a moment to realize that he had meant that literally.

"Well that does explain the inordinate number of mouse heads by the wood pile," R'dek commented, admiring the ruins of the still hanging basket where they customarily kept their meat. They'd thought they'd hung it high enough that Spitt wouldn't be able to reach it, but they hadn't counted on what she could accomplish given enough time and lack of supervision. The bottom had been completely shredded, and R'dek wished he could have seen her, clinging upside down there and ripping at the tough canes keeping her from the food she could smell within. Not a speck of meat remained there now, naturally.

Rodne paused to gaze up at the former meat basket with R'dek as he carried the ruined furs -smeared with a number of unpleasant things that did not bear any close examination- outside. "I suppose she was motivated," he said with grudging admiration, "but we're going to have to haul every bit of this bed outside. It's disgusting."

R'dek nodded in agreement, going to the woodpile to get the brush broom, and that was when he found the kittens.

"Ouch!" he cried loudly as one of the fiercely spitting and clawing creatures, who'd been sleeping in the corner with the broom, sprang out and raked at his shin with it's thorn sharp claws. "There is gratitude for you," R'dek grumbled. "We provide food and shelter, and you try to remove skin from ankles."

"Funnily enough," Rodne said, coming back in to the cave, "that's exactly what Spitt did to me when I first rescued her from the tree, and that's pretty much what I said, too."

"How charming," R'dek said dryly, limping a little as he headed toward the vestibule to sweep up the various cat leavings. Rodne had carried out two rather smelly armloads of the dry grass and leaves they used as an under-layer for their bed while R'dek swept out the rodent parts and kitten droppings and tied back the door flap to let some much needed fresh air into the cave as well as making Rodne's repeated trips outside easier. He joined Rodne in cleaning up the old bedding afterward, and when that was done he set about preparing a fire, as the fresh air coming into the cave now was fairly chilly.

Alas, R'dek quickly discovered that Spitt and her new family had found the cold ashes in the fireplace to be perfect for digging and leaving yet further... deposits, and so he ended up having to carry all the old fireplace ashes out of the cave before a fire could be started. Rodne, in the mean time, had set to work finding someplace new to stash their new supply of dried meat and cheese where the cats would not get it -a challenge no doubt calling for every bit of his genius.

When all the cleaning was done, the cave aired out and the kittens expelled with the aid of the brush broom, they closed the door flap and R'dek got a nice fire going. They'd be sleeping on the hard cave floor tonight, but they'd go out for fresh bedding tomorrow, and the two of them were tired enough from their journey that they'd no doubt sleep well, in spite of the discomfort.

Their journey, and the efforts of their unexpected cleaning chores left them with a considerable appetite too and, now that those chores were done, Rodne and R'dek sat themselves before the fire to enjoy a sumptuous meal of cold smoked duck, egg and cheese bread and fresh pears, washed down with hot tea laced with lighting water. R'dek absorbed the peaceful quiet as he savored his food, hearing only the crackling of their fire, their own quiet voices, and the sounds of the wind outside worrying at the well secured door flap. 

Lakeside was never so quiet, though he had gotten so used to always hearing some laughter or shouting or infants' crying in the background that he had learned to shut it out. Now, in the absence of those sounds, some part of R'dek began to relax as he had not since he had been here last. 

"Gods, it's good to be home again," Rodne said into the peaceful silence, and R'dek only smile in agreement, and then kissed him.

Tired though they were, when they finally settled into their remaining bedding for the night (fortunately, still more than enough to keep them warm) they both felt compelled to share the pleasure of being home at last with each other. There was no need for anything particularly energetic or complex, just touching and kissing and finally stroking each other to completion. They fell asleep basking in their post coital lassitude, wrapped each other's arms, and slept soundly through the night. They slept so soundly that neither of them so much as stirred when, much later that night, Spitt and her brood came in and settled into their proper place between Rodne and R'dek's feet. They would wake the two men in the morning, tussling in the furs and biting their toes, and then Rodne and R'dek would know they were home for sure.

 

*The End*

**Author's Note:**

> [](http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj286/TaylorDhands/?action=view&current=LakesideMap.jpg)  
>   
> 
> Dramatis Personae
> 
> Rodne - The Stargazer  
> R'dek - The Toolmaker  
> Caresn - The Shaman  
> Li'Bet - The Headwoman  
> Loren - The Master Hunter
> 
> R'non and Teleya - traveling fighters
> 
> Shef'hred - fallen leader of a band of raiders
> 
> Turtur - Caresn's Animal Spirit Helper  
> Spitt - Rodne's cat
> 
> Other Lakesiders and their families:  
> Ca'dell - Li'bet's (late) man and ex Headman  
> K'harien - the (late) old basket maker  
> (Ryken and Temmon - her dead sons)  
> Leeta - Rodne's old ex (in the village of the dogs)
> 
> Hallen - The Master Fisherman  
> Meera - his woman  
> Yinte - his eldest son  
> Rinta - Meera's sister  
> Buran and Lerre - Hallen's brother and sister
> 
> Arvid - a (late) fisherman  
> Demery - a fisherman  
> Kubia – a family man and fisherman  
> Karal - a fisherman  
> Ferya - his woman  
> Trigan - their (late) son
> 
> Sitakhus - a hunter  
> Chana - his woman  
> Marak'm - a hunter  
> Ml'lar - a hunter  
> Dirneer - a hunter  
> Gefeir - a hunter  
> Lienan - a hunter  
> Kadam - a woman forester and Dirneer's cousin  
> Nevin - a (late) hunter and brother of Lienan  
> Yarred - a (late) hunter
> 
> Kvena'ah - Lakeside's toolmaker  
> Pretna - a seamstress  
> Trinka - head baker  
> Kimma - a baker  
> Brinna - baker's apprentice  
> Zuszka - potter and village Elder  
> Aberam - a tanner  
> Truva and Emat - apprentice weavers  
> Renna - Emmat's mother  
> Yanos - her (late) man
> 
>  
> 
> Deban - a youth  
> Vedir - a youth
> 
> ****


End file.
